


The Devil's in the Details

by renegadeartist



Series: We are the warriors [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: F/M, feat a huge lack of understanding regarding book publishing, minecraft au, welcome back to jackass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-02-21 17:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 42,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2476058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renegadeartist/pseuds/renegadeartist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt is an author looking for a lucky break, Jeremy is a technichian, and Kdin is not what he seems. But what does all this have to do with the long dead kings and the history of the kingdom? Maybe it's the history hiding behind Matt's eyes or the illegal magic that Jeremy is looking for. Maybe it goes deeper than just a handful of people and just maybe everyone is hiding secrets. But just how far does it go?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We’ve got a lot to lose, the stakes are staggering, but we don’t choose to use the brakes that only ground us down.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second work in a series, so if you haven't read the first one then go do that if you want to understand all the little details. If you don't care then just continue reading.

Mathew “Matt” Bragg could not believe his luck. For as long as he could remember his studies in history and feats of science had been largely ignored. Sure, the wireless communication headsets he had designed had become one of the most widely used and famous pieces of technology, but without the funding to actually make them they had fallen to someone wealthier then him to create and mass produce. Not only that, but his book series, _The Complete History of the Overworld_ , had been denied by most, if not all, publishers. They always said that the history before the ravaging of the Dragon War was sketchy at best. They said if he couldn’t get solid proof of what he wrote about then he wasn’t worth their time. But there had finally been someone more open minded than most, someone that would publish his series, preserving the history that many people tended to forget.

The War of Common Men had been pushed to the back of the metaphorical bookshelf of history, as had the early kings. The First King’s reign had fallen to speculation at best, though if one looked close enough they would be able to see the lasting effects. The End’s Rive from the Overworld didn’t matter to people. Why should they care about a society cut off from their own? Endermen had all but become extinct in the kingdom, as had most monsters. After magic was exiled one was hard pressed to find a large gathering of monsters, if any at all. For the first time the roads were clear and travelers needn’t worry about anything but each other. Whether that was because of the decrease in magic or because of the huge hunting parties that had set out to make the world a safer place was debatable. The ones in power tended to think the former, though Matt wasn’t sure he agreed. Sure, magic was the base of all the problems of the ancient kingdoms, but it had also been the reason it had grown as much as it had.

He was sitting, tapping his feet and tugging nervously at his tie, buried in speculations and possibilities. He was to meet his possible publisher, who had insisted to meet him in person. That was a good sign. It was different, at least. Histories swirled in his head along with all the anxieties of the present. Had he ever learned anything about having a formal meeting? Probably not. He was mostly self-taught, traveling around the kingdom to learn more about the past by the clues their predecessors left. He had been to the Altar, he had been to the edge of the Somnolent Forest, one of the few remaining wells of magic, and he had been to the Teeth, the mountain range covered in fog that held more mysteries then the forest no one could enter. He had been nearly everywhere but he still felt nervous, waiting for someone to walk in and tell him that his book was rejected again.

The door finally creaked, and Matt didn’t dare to turn around. His shoulders tensed and an unfamiliar man walked over to the desk he was sitting in front of. He had a businesslike smile and a crisp black suit that put Matt’s to shame. He obviously knew what he was doing. “Mr. Bragg,” he began, setting down a stack of paper that looked like his publishing request. It was all very official. At least he assumed it was. It wasn’t as if he had many professional meetings. “I understand that you’re here about your book.”

“Y-yes, that’s right,” he stuttered out when he realized the question was not rhetorical. He felt his face flush. “Please, call me Matt.” He couldn’t stand the formalities. Being referred to as “Mr. Bragg” only made it worse for some reason.

The man’s smile changed to a friendlier one, though Matt had the feeling that it wasn’t sincere. “Alright, you can call me Kdin then.” There was something in his eyes that Matt couldn’t place. It was something inhuman, though that was just silly. It was probably just his nerves getting to him. Yeah, it was just nerves. “As it so happens, we can’t publish your book without the proper proof,” Matt felt his heart stop. There it was, the denial. The denial that he had been met with every step of the way. “But, as it happens, we have enlisted a scientist that is going on an expedition to Patch. I’m sure you know what that means for you. But, since I’m here and you’re here I might as well tell you. Patch is known as one of the only places in the Overworld that holds a nearly untouched history of the ancient kingdoms. The others are the Somnolent Forest and the Altar. As a historian I’m sure this would be an important journey for you to make. Well, what do you say?”

Matt was speechless for a few moments. He was serious. He was offering him an opportunity to not only journey to Patch, but to find the necessary proof to publish his book. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he knew it. “Yes, of course!” It was almost too good to be true.

The man smiled a smile that would have unsettled Matt, had he been paying attention and not buried in excitement. It was the smile of someone that had gotten what they wanted, at the expense of someone else.

-.-

The few bags that Matt had bothered to pack were already feeling much too heavy. He should have traveled lighter. He didn't need as much stuff as he had. But then again, he did. Most of it was writing supplies. He had his com and his laptop, all padded down by spare clothes. The clouds above his head were dark and grey, promising rain. The sidewalks were clear, the streets crammed full of vehicles. The bus stop was strangely empty but for a man sitting next to him, his head dropped as if he was sleeping, though Matt couldn't tell if this was the case because of the hoodie hanging over the man's face.

He sighed heavily. "What was I thinking?" He muttered to himself. Maybe it was too early to start having second thoughts, but even so he still felt doubt clinging to his every action. There was a very real possibility that he could be seriously injured on his journey. There was a very real possibility that he wouldn’t be able to get any relevant information. But, even so, he had to at least try. After all the work he had put into his books it would be foolish not to go.

"I don't know, man. I'd say you're pretty fucked." The man next to him replied, the hood over his face concealing most of his features. Matt started, feeling his heart leap into his throat. After a moment the man spoke again. "What's got your panties in a twist?"

Matt sighed, trying to calm down. He didn't know why, but he felt like he could trust the stranger at the bus stop. "I'm going to Patch." He could have sworn he saw the man's eyes widen. "I know that most people stay away from the island but I have a reason to go. It's just... I don't know. What if I mess something up? What then? I'll never get my book published otherwise and it’s probably going to be a fantastic adventure, but I'm still worried." He knew he was rambling, but the man hadn't stopped him so he had just thrown the words out into the cold air.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Patch isn't as dangerous as you'd think. I mean, sure, there are monsters, more monsters then in the entire kingdom, but a little light goes a long way." He patted Matt awkwardly on the back. He appreciated the gesture. "What's this book you mentioned before?"

"It's called _The Complete History of the Overworld_. I've been working on it on and off for a few years. History isn't my specialty, but that doesn't mean that it's not interesting. Especially before the Dragon War. As a civilization, we changed so much in a relatively short amount of time. And it never sat right with me the fact that we just forgot about what it was like before the War." He pulled at his sleeves, mumbling the last part.

"I know about the other war, the one before the Dragon War. It was called the War of Common Men, if I remember correctly.” He said it in a way that implied that he knew very well what it was called. “It scarred a generation and left the next to fend for itself. A lot of kids turned to thievery just to support themselves. Others tried to enlist in the army, just to get a good sword and food in their bellies, but most of the time they would just get turned away. The King-whoever it was at the time- would deny them more often than not. You had a better chance to face the Somnolent Forest's curse then try to live a normal life." The man shook his head violently and cleared his throat. "Sorry, I don't know where that came from."

Matt looked at him, confused. Never before had he heard anyone describe the aftermath of the War of Common Men so thoroughly. It had been a long time ago even before the Dragon War. "No, no it's alright. If I may ask, how old are you?"

The man lifted his hand to run it through his hair, knocking off his hood in the process. His hair was dark and his face young, though there was something about his eyes that were far too tired to belong in such a young man. "I don't even know. I stopped counting when it didn't matter anymore."

Their conversation was brought to an end when the bus pulled up in front of them, its lights cutting through the dim early morning light. Matt got up. He felt bad leaving the man. "Are you getting on this one?"

"No." He stood up and offered Matt his hand. His face bore an expression not unlike the one Kdin had sent him off wearing. He smiled and shook it. "I'm Ray, by the way. Nice to meet you. And I'll probably see you again."

"I'm Matt. I'll ask around for you when I get back." He turned away, climbing the stairs onto the bus, missing the man mutter, "It'll be much sooner than that."

When he sat down and the vehicle started to rumble under him he felt a strange weight in his pocket. He shoved his arm in, pulling out a peculiar vial of black liquid with specks of white floating in it. They looked like stars. Wrapped around the top of the bottle were multiple leather strings tied around what appeared to be a tooth and a fantastically red feather. There were other trinkets tied on as well, a rose petal made of ruby, a leaf that showed no signs of wilting, and an arrow tip with the face of a creeper carved into it. Perhaps the most interesting piece, however, was the small, delicately carved crown that would have been perfect if it didn't have a huge crack in it.

Along with the trinkets tied to the bottle there was a small scrap of paper. On it was written "It's dangerous to go alone, take these! -Ray." Matt had to laugh at the man's joke. He shoved the items back into his pocket, forgetting about them for the time being. There were more pressing matters. Like the fact that the bus had stopped moving.

"Achievement City docks," the driver said in a monotone voice. Matt stood, along with a few other people, and quickly exited the bus, walking as fast as he could towards the boats. Around him the crowd jostled and pushed, making it hard to find his way. Achievement City (though, technically it was New Achievement City), being one of the only port cities, was always crowded. It was one of the oldest cities, though it used to be nothing more than a collection of buildings before the First King decided they needed something grander, something to compare against the giant coliseums and raceways that the kingdoms across the ocean had. The result was towering buildings guided with gold and gemstones. Though the precious metals had been stolen over time, the fanciful designs still remained. The grand statue of the First King had sustained over the years, though it was hard to distinguish any clear features. It was a hub of cultures and sciences. It had originally been planned as a branch of the original Achievement City, though through a sequence of undocumented events the original city had been broken off, forming the island known as Patch.

His eyes scanned every boat at the dock, looking for any familiar face or name. He felt someone bump into him from behind, a string of curses coming from their mouth as a few scrap papers and bags fell from their hands. Matt turned around quickly, sputtering out a hasty "Sorry!" before he scrambled to pick up the fallen papers before the wind blew them away. When his hands were full he stood up and shoved them into the man's hands. He stood there for a second, looking slightly bewildered. He didn't look like he belonged walking around with scientific blueprints and notes. He was also really short.

"Why are you apologizing? I'm the one that bumped into you." He looked (up) at him, bewildered. It wasn’t a condescending kind of thing. It was more genuine confusion.

“N-no, I wasn’t paying attention-“ He tried to say. There wasn’t a need to turn this into something unnecessary. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to do that.

He was cut off when the man held out his hand. “I’m Jeremy. What brings you to the docks?”

“I’m Matt. I’m going to Patch.”

He looked at him in an appraising way. Matt didn’t like it. “No kidding, so am I. I guess you’re the partner they told me about.”

He struggled for something to say. “Oh, I guess so,” he managed. He felt his face heat up. Why wasn’t he saying anything? “Uh… so do you… know where the ship is?”

"The ship? Yeah, I know where that is. Just follow me, I'll take you there." Matt let out a sigh of relief, trailing close behind Jeremy, lest he loose the man to the crowd. He didn't need to worry as much anymore. He knew where he was going- or, at least someone did- and his partner wasn't a stranger anymore. He seemed alright, at least tolerable. But there was something that bothered him a bit. Why would a publishing company send him on an expedition to an excessively dangerous island? To be honest he hadn't really looked into what the company did. Maybe it was something tied with historical preservation and restoration.

"So why are they sending you to Patch?" He decided to ask. It was better than just walking in silence. That and he would get valuable information about the company that had, in a way, enlisted him.

"Technology. Magic studies. Those kinds of things." He replied, making his way towards a boat wedged between two large barges. Though it was illegal to practice magic, there were still people who studied it. It had something to do with technological advancements.  "They want to establish communications to the island and I know how to set it up. I want to go there to study the old magic. It's a win win, really. What about you?"

"Historical studies. It's one of the last remaining monuments to how our culture used to be before the Dragon War."

Jeremy looked at him like he had said something ridiculous. "The Dragon War? That sounds made up."

Matt wasn't sure what to do with that information. Sure, he knew that some people wouldn't be as knowledgeable as he was in regards to history but he had expected him to at least know the name. It wasn’t often that he talked to someone who drew a complete blank on the subject. Though, to be fair, the people he usually talked to were at least semi competent in history. "The Dragon War! You know, the turning point in our history? The most important event in over a hundred years? How do you not know what it is?" Jeremy shrugged.

"It's not as if history is a widely taught subject. Sure, I've heard the name somewhere but I never really bothered to remember it, much less what it correlates to." Matt felt like he was going to start pulling out his hair.

"It's one of the only recorded times in history that a portal to the End sustained for more than a day. The portal spat out a dragon, one that was less than sane, and it ravaged the kingdom, before a knight finally managed to kill it, sacrificing himself in the process. As a result, magic was exiled and technology had a golden age of production." He let the passages of his book spill from his mouth, obviously not affecting the other man in a way that he had hoped.

"Alright, cool. We're here, by the way." He sighed. There was no way he was going to make Jeremy interested. It was fine, but he still wanted to throw his books at him and lock him in a room alone. He followed the man onto the boat, a small vessel that was affectionately named the _Cockbite._ The crew consisted of three strangers and one familiar face.

“Kdin?” Matt said, instantly regretting it. The man in question noticed him immediately recognized him, striding across the boat, a smile on his face.

“Matt! I’m so glad you made it!” He seemed much too happy. “I assume you’ve already met Jeremy, so let me introduce you to the rest of the crew. You happen to share a name with one of them, actually.”

With that, they set off to Patch. Unfortunately for Matt he had no idea what he was getting himself into.


	2. But it’s not a war, it’s just a little conversation.

He felt like he was burning. No, it was worse than that. It felt like a million red hot blades being thrust into his skin. It was a pain greater than anything he had ever felt before. His mind screamed at him that he had to move, he had to finish what he had started. If he didn’t countless other people would die. Including him, apparently. Through shaded eyes he could barely make out a cave wall. His hands were gripped tightly around a sword hilt, one that seemed to hold more power than hammered steel. It was a translucent blue, its hilt finely decorated with runes that he would never be able to read. It lit up the cave, casting eerie shadows across the stone. There was something else in the cave with him. It was massive, a wall of darkness that breathed and moved just like he did.

"Did you really think you could kill me?" A voice that wasn't really a voice thundered, shaking loose stones from the walls. It resounded both inside his head and in the cave. It wasn’t in a language he knew, though he still understood what was being said. But he couldn't think through the pain, past the fact that he needed to kill the thing in front of him. His hands burned and the hilt smoked. He needed to kill the dragon that had hurt so many. Something in the back of his mind cried that it wasn't real. There was no way he could be dying at the hands of a dragon. He was immortal. He had suffered for hundreds of years at the hands of his curse, slowly being consumed by a fire that couldn’t kill him. "I am a dragon! I am the End's Exile! I will kill you, puny mortal, before you ever get near me!"

He felt the flames dance across his skin. It was burning him to a crisp faster than he could react, but he couldn't respawn. It was his curse to bear, he couldn’t run from it. Around him fire swirled from the dragon’s mouth, black as night. Behind him he felt the eyes of his friends on his back, looking on, horrified. It wasn’t as if they knew about his curse. "Matt!" Shouted one of them. “Get out of there! You don’t have to do this!” His heart broke into a million pieces. He was giving away his life to save them, to save his entire kingdom, but in the process abandoning everyone that had ever bothered to care about him. But it was his choice, and he had made his decision long ago. But he was leaving them. He didn’t want them to go through the pain of losing a friend.

He couldn't think like that. Val, Jeremy, Kdin, Caleb, he had to push them to the back of his mind. He didn’t want to, but he had to. His grip tightened on the enchanted sword and he looked back one last time. "I'm sorry," he said. “You need to get out. _Now_.” With that he ran, plunging the sword as deeply into the dragon as he could. He hoped to hear running feet, rolling stones, anything to indicate that they had escaped. He didn’t hear anything. There was an explosion, a flash of bright light that ripped him apart from the inside out and destroyed the cave and everyone inside it. Matt had a moment to experience the intense pain before his identity as the Dual King was stripped away from him, leaving him with nothing but endless darkness, this time without a respawn.

-.-

He sat up so quickly that he ended up banging his head on the bed above him. He groaned, rubbing his head. Though it was fading quickly, the dream had been a strange one, and he felt like it meant much more then he was letting it. It was just a dream, but there was obviously some truth behind it. The End's Exile... he couldn't think of a dragon named that in his vast knowledge of history. And what was with all those people with him? Out of all of the rapidly fading faces, two remained. Kdin and Jeremy. There was something about them that was strangely familiar, and it wasn’t just the dream. He glanced over to the opposite bunk bed, seeing Jeremy sleeping soundly. His gaze rose to Kdin, who was decidedly less asleep then the other man, and who was staring at him.

"You alright?" He asked, climbing down from his bed and sitting next to Matt. He stared at the man, taking in all the minor details. He definitely knew him from somewhere. He absentmindedly rubbed his itching hands, trying to figure out where it was that he had seen him before. The inhumanness of his eyes was still there, and this time Matt didn’t immediately discredit them.

"Yeah," he finally said. He would have to keep an eye on Kdin. "I just had a really weird dream."

"No kidding," Kdin remarked, looking a little bit more excited then he should have. He didn't act like the businessman who sent him on this adventure. He seemed like he was a completely different person. His eyes were normal, maybe even human. "I had a weird dream too. I dreamt that I was a dragon. There was a lot of people, all staring at me, expecting me to be something amazing. I don't actually remember much. Just that it didn’t end like I would have wanted it to."

"There was a dragon in my dream, too." He looked down at his hands, half expecting them to burst into flames at any second. They seemed hotter than they should. Almost like a fever, except it danced through his veins, burning his skin slowly. He shook his head, trying to dispel the feelings left behind by the dream. "I killed it," he whispered.

Apparently Kdin hadn't heard him. "Was it me?" He joked. "In all my dreams I'm a dragon. It probably means something but I've never bothered to figure out what. It’s just a dumb dream, right?" He said it in a way that implied that he knew exactly what it meant and that it was far from a dream.

His mind was whirring. He had never had a dream like that. To be honest, he barely had dreams to begin with, much less one so vivid. He struggled to remember all the details of the dream. He remembered a sword, a dragon... no, he remembered two. The more he tried to remember, the farther away the dream got. "Yes," he whispered. He turned to Kdin. He had heard that time, and there was panic in his eyes that didn't reach his face. He wasn’t a human. "Yes, you were the dragon. You were a dragon."

Kdin chuckled, trying to disperse the tension Matt was creating. He knew what he was talking about. He knew that Matt was right, and he knew it too. He wasn’t human, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. "Well it's just a dream. Who knows what it means. Maybe the island is messing with our heads." Matt didn't stop staring. "Alright, please stop doing that. You're freaking me out."

An idea surfaced in his mind. He pulled out the vial that Ray had given him. It was a chance to get a few answers, and if he didn’t know what it was then it didn’t matter to Matt. "Do you know what this is?" He asked, shoving the vial at Kdin. His eyes widened, and he immediately stood up, rushing to the door, yelling something about how he heard someone calling his name. He was definitely not what he pretended to be. He heard a creaking and turned to see Jeremy getting up.

"Can you two jackasses please stop talking? It was bad enough trying to get to sleep. Staying that way while you're making so much noise is almost impossible."

"Sorry..." He muttered, pushing the blankets away from him. He rubbed his hand, a tingling rushing up and down the limb. He had probably fallen asleep on it. Hopefully, that was all it was. Weird stuff had started happening and he wasn’t sure he liked it. Maybe it was the island. He stood up, walking out of their cabin up to the deck.

"Good morning!" A voice called at him. He jumped, turning around and seeing the source of the noise. It was one of the crew members. If he remembered correctly her name was Griffon. At least she seemed relatively normal. She had explained that her role on the ship was only temporary. It was only as long as she couldn't support herself doing what she loved, and that was wood carving. The intricate designs all over the ship were her work, and Matt was suitably impressed.

“Oh, hi,” he replied lamely. He wasn’t sure what to say. It had only been a day since they were introduced and they had barely talked at all during that time.

“I hope you’re ready. We’re almost at the island.” She looked as if she was going to get back to work, but instead she lingered for a moment. _Oh no_ , he thought. “Matt… you know about the rumors right? About what lives on the island?”

Matt’s heart skipped a beat. What was that supposed to mean? He had never heard anything about anything other than monsters living on the island. Sure, there were a few outposts for anyone brave enough, but that was about it. What else could be living there? He wracked his brain for any notes in history about the island. “No? I mean, I know about the monsters and everything but what are _you_ talking about?”

“I mean like… the city.” She was plainly trying to tell him without saying it out loud, but he had no idea what she was talking about. He just shook his head. Griffon gave an exasperated sigh. “The ghost of the old king? You’ve never heard of that before?”

“Um… no, and I can’t say that I particularly believe it, either.” He was not one to blindly believe something that he had never seen. If there was no proof then he wouldn’t trust the first hand reports. Sometimes words weren’t enough.

Griffon looked offended. “So you believe that there are monsters and kings that could fly and create something out of nothing but a ghost is where you draw the line?”

“Well, unlike ghosts, there is proof that monsters exist. And the kings, though only the Builders could fly. Throughout history mankind was plagued by the creepers and endermen and blazes. They didn’t stop being a common occurrence up until the Dragon War. You know that, right? Not even the ancient kings did anything about them.”

She crossed her arms, a frown growing on her face. “I don’t know shit. I’ve never seen a creeper, how do I know that all of our ancestors weren’t high as fuck all the time? Just because you’ve never seen something doesn’t mean it invalidates its existence. You’re a historian, aren’t you?”

She stormed off and Matt was left with a stunned expression on his face. That took a turn he hadn’t expected it to. “Dude, what the fuck happened?” Jeremy asked from behind him. “Why’d you piss her off?”

“I just… I don’t know, I said some things and she said some things and… I guess we took some wrong turns.” He rubbed his hand. It was getting uncomfortably hot.

“Huh. What did you guys talk about?” He seemed genuinely curious. Matt sighed. He didn’t really want to talk about it at the moment. Enough weird stuff had already happened, he didn’t need to supplement it.

“A ghost on the island. At least, that’s what she was talking about. I didn’t believe it.”

“You’d be the first. I mean, if monsters exist, then why can’t ghosts?”

Matt ran a hand through his hair. He had hoped Jeremy would back him up on this. “But have you ever seen a ghost?”

“Have you ever seen a monster?”

He paused. Not in person, no. “…fair enough. What’s the legend behind the ghost, anyways?”

Jeremy thought for a second. “Ok, so it goes something like this: long ago, before Patch was split off from the main continent, the city was where the First King and his consorts lived was full of life and celebrations. The main city was the First King as his court. They lived in the huge castle that was built to house them all. But, when the king’s consorts started dying, he decided to build them each a final resting place, a way to remember them. Some say that his consorts were destined to be reborn again, though one stayed behind, unable to let go, waiting for the First King himself to come back.”

“Well, at least it’s historically accurate.” He muttered. He didn’t particularly believe that the legend was true, but he had seen what arguing about it had done. Yes, the First King had a court. Specifically, though, there was always another person with him. A human, though who it was changed with time. He ruled over humans, so he needed one to help him make the right decisions concerning them. The Carpenter King was the first to die off, then came the Wild King, the Rose King, the Foolish King, the Mad King, and finally the Phoenix Queen. One by one they were called to court, to live their lives in service. After each one died a monument was built to honor them. The First King was said to always be in perpetual mourning after the death of his first consort.

Jeremy shrugged, walking off to another part of the ship. Matt went to the mess hall, hoping to get something before it was all eaten. The rest of the day passed on with little to no activity. The crew was below, monitoring the engine and making sure they were making progress. The uncomfortable feeling in his hands grew stronger as time went by.

Eventually there was a shout from the front of the ship. “Assholes! We’re here!”  

-.-                                                                                                                               

“Ok, but like, what if I could get you out.” They were standing in a room with green and white walls and no ceiling. What would have usually ended in more plaster gave way to black plastic tubing and vents. The room was crowded, though not to the point where it was a hazard to stand there.

He didn’t look impressed. Probably because he had heard the proposition before. “Ray, are you fucking serious? Don’t joke about things like that.” He crossed his arms, staring at him with as much intensity as he could muster.

“I’m not joking, Michael! I really think that I have a way to get you all out.” It wasn’t like last time. He actually had a plan, and a backup plan. He had plans for days.

“We’ve been over this, your ghost powers don’t work that way. You can’t just rip us out of our prisons. Us talking like this is taxing enough as it is for you.” He cared about him, that was clear. He didn’t want Ray to kill himself getting them out. He didn’t want Ray to die period. They all knew he couldn’t force it. His curse allowed him to escape his prison, though he couldn’t help his friends. He could keep them informed, though.

“Listen, I’ve told you a million times, I’m not a ghost.” It was true, though most people perceived him as one.  It wasn’t as if they understood the concept of inter-dimensional travel. “And, more importantly, I’m not talking about that! I actually have someone to get you all out! Maybe Geoff too, if we’re lucky. He was there during the War-you know, the one with the dragon that I told you about- and I’m pretty sure he died. He’s like us, Michael, he was an immortal. I gave him the water, he could be one again.” He was excited, practically bouncing. They would finally get out. They would be able to live again. Michael didn’t reciprocate his feelings.

“You did _what?_ Ray, are you fucking crazy?” He shrugged meekly. It had taken a while (and a few unintentional volunteers), but he had managed to get a few extra vials of the water. “The dragons are going to fucking kill you for stealing their shit again. You know how much they hate that. They wouldn’t let Geoff use it on us the first time around. I’m surprised they didn’t just kill him on the spot when he took it without them knowing.”

“I mean, yeah, but that’s over and done with. They’re not getting that shit back. Matt’s going to use it, or someone is. Also, Kdin’s coming too.” Michael’s face didn’t change, though something in his eyes softened. He had heard a few stories about what had happened to the Ender King. Being trapped in the Overworld was bound to have softened him up some. Maybe to the point where he was the kid they had met when they made it into the End.

“Well, alright, I’ll allow that. He hasn’t been in the End for years. We knew he would come eventually. He’s that dragon, right?”

“Yeah. He’s coming and he’s going to get you out. _All_ of you.” Behind them a door opened, revealing a tired Geoff, holding a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other. He didn’t look particularly happy, especially when he saw Ray along with Michael. “Whoops, time to go,” Ray yelped, before sending Michael back where he belonged. Geoff just rubbed his eyes. He stuck a finger at Ray, glaring at him like everything wrong with the world was his fault.

“It’s too early for this shit. You owe me big time, asshat.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Don’t worry about it, Geoff. I’m leaving.”

Geoff snorted. “Yeah, you better. I need everyone today. We’re in for a long-ass day of filming.”


	3. Something’s wrong with you leaving. You were someone who I could believe in.

The small outpost was mostly silent. There were a few low stone houses, all without paint or ornamentation. The entire place was grey. It seemed that the entire area had been sucked dry of color. No one wandered outside of the buildings and no ship docked except for them. The noises beyond the tree line were all unfamiliar. Clacking and hissing and clicking. There were undoubtedly monsters in the forest. "Why is it so... boring?" Jeremy muttered. "I expected something... better."

"There's nothing more than a few people living here. There's no ship that's brave enough to make regular trips here. There are some that will chance the trip once, maybe twice in their lives, but that's it." Matt looked behind him, seeing a few people wrapped in faded cloaks unloading provisions that the crew was kind enough to transport. The cloaks were proof enough that the island was disconnected from the mainland, but the lack of electronics drove the point home. There were no roads or lights and there certainly weren’t any coms.  "And you can't fly in. There are ancient wards that prevent it."

"I mean it's not like I expected everyone to come scrambling to the island but I hoped that there would at least be more than five buildings." Jeremy started walking off the pier, and Matt trailed behind. The grass was tough and dead. He was having second thoughts about agreeing to come to the island for the hundredth time since he had stepped out of his house a few days ago.

"The forest is much more impressive, and if you can make it to the city it's even better," a voice behind them said. Matt turned to see a small girl with a bright smile and large brown eyes. She seemed nice enough, though he wasn’t sure if that was enough to validate trust. Who knew what kind of crazy people lived on the island. "I'm Caiti. I'll be your guide through the island."

"I’m Jeremy. Why is the outpost so colorless?"

Caiti laughed. She didn’t seem offended, and that was good. She was the first local they had met, and he didn’t want to start off on bad terms. "Well, Jeremy, it really isn't." He only looked at her, confused. Truth be told, Matt was as well. It was clear enough that the outpost lacked any bright colors. "If you look past the field you'll see the many greens of the forest. The trees are ancient and have many more colors if you look hard enough. The buildings made of stone are to hide from the monsters. At night it's easiest for them to see bright colors. If they are diluted, grey even, then they become practically invisible unless the monster knows in advance that we're here. And trust me; they're much more colorful inside. It’s a very cheery place, even if it doesn’t look it."

"I'm Matt," he interjected. "How long have you been living on Patch?"

"My whole life." At their surprised looks she laughed and continued on. "It's not as if I haven't been to the mainland. I just prefer it here. And besides, someone I care about dearly lives here, and he's not leaving any time soon."

"Ooh," Jeremy teased, "what's his name?"

She blushed heavily, shuffling her feet and looking at anything but them. "His name is Jack." She grabbed both of their shoulders, spinning them around and pushing them towards a slightly larger building. He knew that she was smiling. "Come on, we have to get into the inn before sundown. If you don't you better hope you're good with a weapon or else you're doomed."

As it turned out, Caiti hadn't lied. The inside of the inn was covered in bright paints and decorations. There were little carvings of trees and creepers and bears all over the lobby, some flowers growing near the door. It was a cheery place, a stark contrast to the field outside. The walls were paneled in wood, making it seem like they were in a completely different place. Only the window let him know that they were still in the same place. They followed Caiti to a small room that offset the entrance. It was covered in maps and paper with notes painstakingly written on every inch available. She obviously knew what to do and where everything was. It seemed like an office, though not one that he had ever seen. It looked a bit like his cartographer friend’s home office.

Jeremy looked around at the maps. He seemed most interested in the smaller, more detailed ones. The ones with tiny writing marking where everything was and what it was. "So what's all this? Do you make it a habit to wander through the forest?"

"When you live in a place like this it's either explore or be bored. I chose to explore. As far as I know no one else shares my views, though. They're all terrified of what lives beyond the tree line." Matt glanced at a map hanging on the wall nearest to him. He saw small rectangles, some more detailed than others. There were markings for things such as the “Bunker”, “Lavafall”, and “Giant Animals?”

"Well I can't say I'm not impressed. If I didn't have to I wouldn't have come here. The forest is so close and I'm terrified. But I assume you know where we're going tomorrow?" Matt asked, focusing on their host.

She rolled out a detailed map of a deeper part of the forest. It had a collection of rectangular spots in the middle, clustered in a huge clearing. "Indeed I do. You're going to the city." She pointed at Matt. "And you're looking for something." She pointed at Jeremy. He looked like he was about to protest, but Caiti put up a hand. "I don't want to hear it. I know you're not here for communications. The mainland doesn't give a shit about us. We're just a group of crazy people that won't abandon their homes."

Jeremy looked guilty. Matt looked curious.  "She's not going to ask, but I am. Why are you here, if not for communications, like you said?"

He squirmed a bit under Matt's scrutinizing gaze. He looked like he was going to stay silent before he started talking. "I'm here to studymagicandhopefullylearnhowtouseit," he mumbled quickly. Matt didn't say anything at first.

"You're an idiot." Jeremy's face turned red. "You know as well as I do that practicing magic is illegal. You're going to get arrested the second you set foot back on the mainland."

"What if I'm not planning on going back?" He shot back defensively.

"Then you're an even bigger idiot then I thought."

Caiti smiled, addressing Jeremy. "Don't worry, there's plenty of space for you here. It's not like this inn is ever full." She turned back to Matt, a serious look on her face. "Now, tomorrow we're going to the city. There's an empty outpost near there with enough provisions to last us a few days. In that time you need to gather as much information as you need because we're not going back. I don't want to be responsible for the death of two visitors."

"Two?" Jeremy asked. "What about Kdin?"

"Who?” Caiti asked, curious. “You're the only two staying. Besides the ship in the dock, of course."

Matt had a sinking suspicion that he hadn't been sent to Patch as part of an expedition team. "You're sure there wasn't another one with us?" Caiti just shook her head.

-.-

The lamp beside his bed illuminated the cozy interior of the inn's rooms. The bed was covered by a soft red blanket, the rest of the furniture reflecting the style. There was a squat dresser on one corner, a chair and a desk in the other. He had his laptop open, typing away, documenting everything he had learned, no matter how minuscule. It had been an exciting day, but it was time to start winding down. Caiti had made it abundantly clear that stopping while in the forest was not an option. She had explained that the forest, while small, was full of dangers. There were all manner of monsters prowling through the underbrush and they had to keep their eyes peeled. He had meant to ask her about the supposed ghost, but had forgotten at the last minute.

His hand stopped typing when a sudden heat raced up his arm. He sharply inhaled when it turned from a strange irritation to a sharp pain. He raced over to the bathroom, fumbling before turning on the faucet, pouring cold water on his arm. The heat subsided slightly, though it didn’t disappear completely. He looked up at the mirror above the sink to see that it was covered in steam. In fact, most of the bathroom had steam hanging in the air. He wiped his hand across the mirror, hoping to get a good look at himself, only to stumble back. What was reflected at him was not the face he was used to. His face was red and cracked. Beneath his skin he saw something moving, not unlike magma under a partially cooled shell. His eyes were red and feverish, burning like coals in a fire. He blinked and it was gone.

A knock came from his door and he almost screamed. With shaking hands wrapped in a towel he turned the knob, peeking through the crack at who was there. It was Jeremy, who promptly pushed his way through. "Are you having weird," he made a motion with his hand, "Things?"

"Things." Matt said, unimpressed. He wasn't just going to tell Jeremy about his thing. He was more interested in what Jeremy's thing was.

"Yeah, things. Like, random flashes of memories that you're pretty sure never happened, your limbs refusing to work properly? Your heart stopping?" He whispered the last part, so Matt decided to ignore it.

"Did you drink the weird shit on the ship? Who knows what's in that." He grimaced a bit when his arm grew hot again.

"No, and I'm not crazy- hey, are you alright?" Shit. He had noticed. His eyes traveled down to the towel still wrapped around his hand. "What the fuck are you doing?" He reached out and wrenched the towel from his hand, dropping it immediately when he felt how hot it was. "What the fuck?"

"I don't know! I'm just having a thing," he made the same motion Jeremy had. He glanced down at the hand that had been previously covered, blinking at what he saw. It was the same texture as his face had been in the mirror. His panicked eyes found Jeremy's. "What the fuck is with this island?"

"I don't know, but we need to figure it out." Jeremy grabbed his elbow, careful to avoid the burning skin around his hands, and sat them both down on the bed across from him. He crossed his legs, an intense look of concentration on his face.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, leaning away from the other man. Whatever he planned on doing, Matt hoped that he wouldn’t burn the inn down. If he was going to blow a hole through the inn's wall with his illegal magic he wasn't going to be caught in the blast radius. Jeremy didn't respond. Matt winced as a sharp pain ran through his head, ripping his vision away.

He was in a small room, parchment piled on top of a regal looking oak desk. It had simple designs and was, for the most part, a light brown. There were some discolorations from the years of use. Under his hands a quill moved, forming words and numbers. A knock came from his door. He knew who it was. "What do you want, Jeremy?"

A face poked into the room. It was a face that told him that he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. "Are you alright?" He seemed concerned. It wasn't like it had been crippling. He could handle it like an adult. News was one thing. When the disaster actually reached them it would be another matter entirely.

"Yes, Jeremy, I'm fine. Do you really think that a dragon is enough to send me into a panic?" He had lived too long for that.

"No, but it's enough for me." He looked like he had spent the hours since the announcement ripping at his beard and throwing things at his wall. He wasn't fit for the stress of ruling a kingdom, especially one with widespread panic and a dragon destroying cities and towns, but that was why he was only a half king. Truth be told Matt wasn't sure he would have been able to rule a kingdom alone either. But that was why they were the Dual Kings, because one wouldn't have been able to rule without the other.

He got up and opened the door fully. “Why? You seemed fine when it was announced. What happened?” He shuffled his feet and refused to meet Matt’s eyes. He grabbed his shoulder. “ _Jeremy._ What happened?”

“I… I left.”

“Left?” Matt was stunned. “You mean you left the castle? Why?”

“Because I was scared,” Jeremy muttered. “But that’s not the important part. I met someone in the gardens outside the castle.”

He didn’t like the way Jeremy said that. It wasn’t the good kind of meeting. “Who was it?”

“She was a dragon,” he said slowly, “and she was dying.”

“What?” Matt asked stupidly. There were more dragons in the kingdom? He started walking out the door before he felt Jeremy weakly grab his sleeve.

“Wait.” Matt turned, immediately having to grab Jeremy to stop him from falling on the ground. His legs were shaking and his skin was pasty and cold. “S-sorry. I’m still getting used to this.”

“You’re getting used to what? Jeremy, what the fuck happened?” He felt himself begin to panic. No, he couldn’t. Not now, at least. He needed to take care of his friend. And also drill him for information. He led him over to the desk’s chair, throwing his cloak around his shoulders even if he wasn’t shivering.

“You’re really warm, Matt.” Jeremy clung to the cloth, looking as if he was struggling to stay awake. “Actually, you always are. Why is that? It’s always so cold in the castle, but you never are.”

“Why don’t you tell me what happened.” Matt was rekindling the fire, trying to make the room warmer than it was. Jeremy was right, though. He wasn’t ever cold, but it wasn’t always a good thing. Fire could be warming or burning. It changed daily.

“Oh, yeah. That. Well, I was walking through the gardens, like you do, except the sun was going down and I thought ‘Shit, I better get back soon,’ but I tripped over something. It turned out it was a person, lying down in the dirt. I thought it was kind of weird, so I tried to get them up. Turns out it was a girl, also a dragon, though I didn’t notice her wings until too late, and she grabbed me by my collar, like this,” he demonstrated by weakly plucking at his shirt. Matt walked over to him, laying his arm over his forehead. It was freezing cold. “OW! Shit, man, you’re burning up; you might want to get that checked or something. I’m sure that’s not normal.”

“Jeremy, _what happened in the garden_?” Not only was he unbelievable cold, but he also lacked a pulse. At least one that Matt could find. He had a sinking suspicion that something bad had happened outside, and that was an understatement.  

“She grabbed my shirt and started babbling all sorts of stuff. She was saying ‘Take it,’ and I was like ‘What the shit? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Turns out she had a curse that she couldn’t live with, so she gave it to me.” His eyes cleared for a moment, staring at Matt. “What happened? I feel like shit.”

His arm dropped and he stood up. There was nothing to be worried about. Well, relatively. There was still the matter of his friend being cursed. And he knew there was only one thing that would cause such an intricate curse. His friend had been gifted immortality. “You can’t die.”

“What? ‘Course I can. I’m not immortal or anything.”

He stared at Jeremy for a moment, considering how to word his next words. “You weren’t.”

He seemed to jump up, looking equal parts panicked and excited. “Are you serious? Is that what happened? Is that why I feel like shit?”

“No, you feel like shit because of your curse.”

“Um? Alright? How do you even know all this?” 

Instead of answering he pulled off his gloves, revealing blackened and cracked hands, the fire moving through his veins glowing softly in the dim light. “Because I’ve lived with it for centuries.”

“Woah, cool. You’re like a portable fireplace.” He blinked slowly. “Wait, why didn’t you tell me? Do you not trust me or something? I thought we were friends, man.” He looked like he was about to cry. Matt looked like he was about to start hitting someone (Jeremy).

“How do I just tell someone that someday I’ll be here when they’re long dead, that I live my life in a way that makes it difficult to do the simplest things? I want to write? Better hope that my hands won’t burn the paper. I’m thirsty? Better hope my mouth doesn’t vaporize any water I drink. I want to get up in the morning? Better hope I’m not being burned from the inside out.”

He heard Jeremy getting up, but he couldn’t move. He just wanted it to stop. He wanted his curse gone in a way that he had never experienced before. Suddenly it was too much. After so long, it was too much and he wanted it gone. That or he wanted himself gone. Anything that would just make it stop. He was pretty sure he was crying, hot tears momentarily cooling his burning skin before it vaporized into the air.

He felt arms wrap around him, cold hands grabbing his. It was like that for a moment, and in that short time Matt felt like he was normal again. “It’s alright. If nothing else good came out of this, at least you have me now. We’re the Dual Kings. We have to look out for each other. I may be new to this curse thing, but we’ll get through it. And, if the time ever comes that I leave, or you leave, well, we’ll just have to find someone else. It’s not a hole you have to be trapped in forever. Plenty of people own ladders, but if you just ignore them all then what’s the point? You’re practically trapping yourself.” He stretched his arms out, looking Matt in the eyes. “Promise me you won’t ignore people who want to help, alright?”

“Alright.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, steadying himself. When he opened them he was back in the inn’s room, Jeremy standing in front of him.

Jeremy focused on him the second the memory ended. “Holy shit,” he muttered, “I did not expect that to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, this chapter got away from me near the end. Go ahead and interpret it as you will. Maybe it's romantic, maybe it's platonic. We'll see how it ends up.


	4. Lets me face this, let me sleep, and when I wake up let me be.

He stumbled back, trying to stay steady. His legs shook and he almost toppled over. Behind his eyes memories flashed. People's faces and names went by, green fields and dark caves. Sorrow and happiness and pain and a life he had forgotten crowded around his mind. His identity came streaming back, smothering the person he had become. Matt's aspirations and hopes suddenly seemed trivial in the face of all that he had been through, the centuries he'd lived through. It didn't matter that he had come to Patch for information about the history of the kingdoms because he had lived through most of it. He felt his heart beating way too fast, pumping burning blood all throughout his body, cracking and burning his skin.

"Hey, Matt, are you alright?" Jeremy reached toward him, looking very, very afraid. It only brought back another flood of memories. A cave, a curse, and a terrible chain reaction from a sword that was never meant to kill a dragon. He should have known. He should have expected something more than just his terrible life ending. A dragon's sword wasn't meant to kill one of its own, much less its creator. The creator that had been locked away because he had broken the rules, because he had tapped into the gift for kings and queens and managing to block out the terrible consequence that came with it: a curse. But a human was not meant to receive a gift tailor fit to a dragon. "Matt! Hey! Say something, you're freaking me out!"

He looked at the man yelling at him, seeing a face he didn't know. He was in a room he wasn't familiar with and the name the man was yelling wasn't his. He panicked, pushing the man away and tripping out of the door. What was going on? There was something happening but he couldn’t focus. He felt an ice cold hand grab his arm, stopping him. "Let me go!" He yelled desperately, clawing at the hands. He felt fire in his stomach, spitting smoke out of his mouth. "I don't know what's going on, let me go!"

"Matt, please," the man begged, still using the name that wasn't his. It wasn't, right? He wasn’t sure. Kings gave up their names and a child in the streets had no use for one. "You... you know who I am, right?"

"I don't know!" He yelled, trying to organize his thoughts, but it was so hard to focus on just one. He needed some time alone, to figure out who he was. "It's all messed up, I can't think, I don't know where I am, I don't know who you are. I don't know who I am." He felt the hands drop and all of a sudden he was running through a grey field towards a bright forest, a frightened and hurt look on a face he didn’t remember. He stumbled through the roots, tripping and falling and scrambling through the leaves. He finally stopped, collapsing against an ivy covered wall. The dark was cold, but he was burning.

Between the trees came the sounds of monsters. The night soaked up the colors and he felt truly alone. He didn't have time to worry about that right now, though. He brought his knees up to his chest, cradling his head in his hands. "What's happening?" He whispered silently. It was a huge mess. There were castles towering in his mind, and dark tunnels and dirty street corners. There was a man sitting in a dim room, typing out vast histories on a computer. There was a king who ruled a kingdom, no matter how short his reign was. There was a child looking for someone to save him, only to end up destroying himself. Tears streamed down his face as he slowly drew into himself, a child again. It wasn’t right. He had been so set on a path; he had known where he was going, what his life was going to be. That was all gone now.

A vendor yelling at him, a mage telling him of a sword that could save even the weakest, and a fate that he couldn't escape, no matter how hard he tried, poured into him, tugging his life out from under him. He was a child, wailing while the only home he had known came crashing down around him. He was a child looking for his mother, only to find her dead and buried, looking for a father only to find that he had disappeared, carried off and killed. He was a child, broken and unwanted.

A hissing met his ears and he didn't respond. A creeper was as good as any way to go, he supposed. But there was the sound of metal ringing through the air and of a monster dying and he dared to look up. There was a man in front of him, standing over the fresh corpse of a creeper. He wore a garish red cape and an inky black suit. He walked over to him, looking down with an expression of sympathy on his face. He sat down, his back against the same icy covered wall. "Not going to lie, you look like shit."

At first he wanted to run away. He didn’t know who this was, this was a stranger. But then the voice clicked in his mind, and he was Matt again. Yeah, Matt. The author, the historian, the inventor. "Ray?" He asked cautiously. What was he doing here? He had left him back at the mainland with the promise to see him again. At least he could fulfill that promise.

"The one and only," he said, grinning at Matt. He seemed just fine with talking loudly in the dark. He didn’t seem to care about what had happened, though at the same time he was speaking in a way that distracted him from the memories. "I guess you remembered then?"

He flinched a bit. "How do you know about that?" It had only happened a few hours ago at most. He rubbed his face, realizing what he had done to Jeremy. He would have to apologize to him when he went back.

"Well, as an immortal to another immortal, let's just say it's not hard to tell.” Matt jerked up at that. He was an immortal too? That explained a bit. “I went through the same thing. I was consort to the First King, you know. I spent the first week stumbling around, trying to find my room in the castle's tower, only to find it crumbled and desolate." He laughed, at himself more than Matt. It seemed that he had moved past the terrible time of remembering your past.

He leaned back a bit, a million questions swirling in his head. He settled on one. "What's your curse, then?"

"I'm a ghost." He seemed to consider that for a moment. "You're smart, right?" Matt decided it was best to nod. He would do his best to understand what he said. "I'm not technically a ghost. I'm just stuck in the space between universes. The curse whacked me out of my body into a weird white plain. Obviously I didn't want to stay there, so I explored. I found so many universes and in each one there was always something similar. I was there, and so were my friends, though we weren’t always friends. The easiest one to exist in is obviously this one, though I can't interact with the world without a body. Good thing the curse didn't destroy it, huh? I can't take it with me, though, so I usually just have a nice conversation with alternate me and we hang out. Sometimes it’s a bad idea to stay. I live some exciting lives."

He wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. He wasn’t even sure he understood. "I'm burning alive," he heard himself say. He almost smacked himself in the face.

"Well, yeah, but it's not a curse."

That stopped his hand. "What? Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?" It didn’t make sense. Of course it was a curse. What else could it be? That was what happened when you gained immortality. You got a curse. His was to burn alive from a fire that could never kill him.

"It's not a curse, it's a gift.” He was about to slap Ray when he held up a hand. “Well, it would be, if you were a dragon. You found the Exile's Blade, a sword that gifts immortality, no strings attached. You got a sword made for dragons. I don't know if you know this, but you're not a dragon. You're a human. You can't handle the things that dragons can. Their blood is boiling, their fire never dies, and they certainly never burn to death. Your curse is a technicality."

He almost cried. All he had gone through was because of a technicality. He drew into himself again, blowing hot breath out of his mouth. "So, what? I mean I know that that guy lied to me but even he didn't know what would happen. I guess he dodged a bullet on that one."

"What guy?" Talking about it only made his head hurt, but he was already trapped in the memory so he might as well.

"When I was a kid, back when the First King ruled, I lost my family to a raid. I don't know if my parents lived or not but it's safe to say that by now they've kicked the bucket. I lived in the streets of the city on top of the Teeth. There was a caravan passing by our village when it was raided and I managed to catch a ride to the Rock. That's what the city was called back then. I lived there for years until a Mage found me stealing food and decided that I could put my talents to use elsewhere. He told me that if I got him a sword then he would give me my family back. I was foolish enough to believe him and, well, the rest is history."

Ray shifted a bit, staring at Matt. He seemed to be considering something. Finally he said, "Do you still have that bottle I gave you?"

He flinched a bit, memories crowding together, yelling at him to listen, to remember. He sucked in a breath and forced them to be quiet. "Yeah, I have it right here," he pulled out the bottle, the stars twinkling in the dark.

He stood up, pulling Matt with him. He put a hand over the bottle, a little above touching it. He seemed to be contemplating something yet again. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," Matt said truthfully. It was a bottle full of black ink and white stars to him. If anything had value it would be the rose petal made of ruby.

"It's water from the End." He felt his eyes widen. That changed a lot, to put it simply. "It grants immortality and wisdom to the royalty of the End. It grants the same to everyone else, at the price of a curse. You don't need it because you already have what it gives, except with no curse."

"Then why'd you give it to me?"

"Because there's a possibility that it can solve your problem. It's only a possibility, though. Ryan told me that there's two possible outcomes. It will either kill you or trick your body into acting like a dragon's does, living with an elevated body temperature." He shook his head. "I'm not sure how trustworthy his information is. He's kinda messed up in the head."

He stared at the bottle in his hands. Out of all the memories there was one that didn't make sense. "I died, didn't I? That's what happens when you kill a dragon, right?"

"Close, actually not close at all, but no. You didn't die. In this case your memories were repressed and you were given a new life. It's not the same as a rebirth, I'll grant you that, but it's a close substitute. You could talk to Ryan about being two different people. He's had plenty of experience with that kind of thing. His is admittedly a little different."

"Why did I remember now? Why not before, when I met you, or even earlier?"

"Don't you remember? Your friend managed to pull off a successful memory restoration spell."  Truth be told everything after a year or so ago was fuzzy. It was getting better, though. He remembered Jeremy and Kdin and the dragon’s lies about what he was being sent to the island for. He doubted Kdin expected him to remember so soon. "And it probably had something to do with the island. It's absolutely covered in magic, the way the mainland isn't anymore. If you had tried it there it would have probably just blown up in your faces, and I mean that literally."

He stayed silent for a moment. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh. Right, well I'm kind of supposed to be trapped here. Because of my curse I managed to escape but I can't get any of my friends out and it would have been kind of rude to leave them so I just hang out here most of the time. Caiti likes to talk to Jack so I let her sometimes. If you still want to go tomorrow you could help us out. On the bottle are the keys to everyone's prisons. I can't use them because I kind of broke the rules by getting out and Caiti did too by talking to Jack so really you and your friend are the only people capable of doing it."

There was nothing for him to loose. His life had changed irreparably, and there was no going back. He might as well do some good. "Ok, I'll do it. You're helping me. I'll help you."

Ray looked ecstatic. "Woah, really? Thanks dude." His face became a bit more serious, as did his voice. "Unfortunately your restored memory and the past few hours or so won't last you very long. You chose an artificial way to remember, one that is only used as a stepping stone to heal memories. Your body would usually take over the rest of the healing process but, since it's only temporary and there’s nothing to heal and everything to restore, you probably won't remember most of this conversation. I know for a fact that Ryan will be able to restore it permanently but since he's kind of unavailable right now you'll just have to make it to the city tomorrow and hope for the best. Or, to avoid another lengthy explanation, you can just hope for the best with the water."

Matt stared at the bottle in his hand. He had to remember because he could get Jeremy to the city, get his memory restored. He made a decision and opened the bottle and tipped it back, the liquid going down his throat as cold as Jeremy's hands. "You're not actually supposed to drink- oh shit."

The bottle fell to the ground and Matt followed soon after. The fire in his veins blazed bright, bathing the field in fire. The grass around his knees smoldered and the cold of the night was chased away. He felt himself retch into the grass, a thick fire flowing out and setting the area around him ablaze. He tried to grasp at something, anything, but there was nothing there. He felt bones break and shift, his senses heightening, deafening him with the sudden cacophony of noise that had previously unknown to him. There was a tearing sound and suddenly he felt much heavier. He almost cried when the pain receded, even the fire he had known for most of his life.

There was a crunching of grass and heavy breathing. Ray's face came into view and he looked surprised. "Woah," was the first thing he said. "Do you... do you realize what happened?" He tried to say something, he really did, but all that came out was a stream of fire. Ray had to dance away to avoid it. "I'll take that as a no. Well, you're a dragon now. At least half way. You probably can't change to a full dragon like most can, just human and in-between.

He coughed and tried to stand. He almost fell over but he felt a strange weight behind him steady him. He glanced behind him and saw a pair of dull red wings, tattered and burned. They reminded him of Kdin's, though his were admittedly larger. He coughed again, smoke rolling out into the air. "What happened?"

"You took a route you didn't have to. You drank the water." Matt looked at Ray, confused. "You're not really supposed to do that. I'm sure if you hadn't then you'd still be human, but hey, I'm sure there's a universe out there where you didn't even take me up on my offer. I'd say you came out on top."

"What now? I can't go back looking like this. You said Jeremy won't remember."

Ray thought for a moment. "Focus on how you used to look. Try to make yourself look like that again. Hide your wings, hide your eyes and horns and fire. Make yourself look human again. That's what all other dragons do, though admittedly it's easier to stay in the form you're in now. Just focus, see if you can change."

Matt closed his eyes, focusing on the man that met Ray at a bus stop. He focused on becoming human, and soon enough he felt light as air and missing a few parts that would send most people into a panic. He looked human again, though he knew he wasn't. There was no pain in the fire now, just warmth. “Well,” he said, his voice practically human, “I guess I’ll see you at the city.”

“Alright, see you there.” With that Ray left. Matt turned towards the village and put on the face of a documenter, an inventor, a human. He could play this part as well as anyone. He had lived through it, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> art by me


	5. I’ve lost a lot a in this game. Another everyday face with no name.

When Jeremy woke up his first thought was that someone had shut off the heat. It felt like winter, though in truth fall had only just begun. He wasn’t sure how the seasons worked on the island but it never got so cold so early. The second thing he thought was that he had forgotten something important. He stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what it was. It felt more important than a forgotten birthday or a missed deadline. There was an itch in his head that had no definable source. There was something missing in his head and he didn't know what. All he knew was that it was _important._ He thought back to the day before, even the week before. He ran through all that had happened in his head. The strange man that had offered him a deal he couldn't refuse. Meeting another man that wasn't quite aware of how much magic clung to him. Taking a boat to Patch, one of the last untouched magical wells in the world.

While Matt was the history expert, he was the magical one. He knew that there was little to no magic in the other kingdoms. The one across the ocean, the one full of strange lords and fanciful ladies and everything in-between, was the closest to having anything similar. There were people there who looked more like creatures, people who lived in shadows and called it home. There were people who always made the best of life, and even others who never seemed to see the good things around them. It wasn’t too dissimilar to his home, though from what he had read it was a bit more defined. The kingdom across the ocean had a few names, though the one the kings and queens called it was the Hub. He didn’t know why, for he had never bothered looking into it past the initial history. All he knew was that there was nothing for him there.

He was in Patch, though. It was the place he had always hoped to go, to learn more about the trade he had chosen to practice, no matter what risks it put him in. It was an exciting place, though a bit devoid of color. When they made it to the island he had started having random flashes of memories, disconnected images that were hard to make any sense of. At first he had chalked it up to the ancient magics surrounding the island but after he realized that they weren't images he recognized he had gone straight to Matt. All he remembered was that it was something important, that he needed to fix it, whatever it was, because there was something telling him that he wasn’t whole without the memories. What happened after that he wasn't sure. He wasn't even sure why he went to Matt. At the time it seemed like the only possible option. It had been a constant feeling, though then it had overcome his sense of reason. He had always felt like he could trust Matt, that he was a good friend, though he was almost certain that he had never met the man before.

He heard creaking outside his door so he sat up, the warm blankets slipping off of him and letting the cold air assault him. He shivered violently. Wasn’t it warm the day before? He pulled the blanket back around him, slipping off the bed and padding to the door. He peeked out, only to see an empty hallway. He frowned. Well, it was as good a reason as any to get started with the day. He pulled on his clothes, the ones he would wear when they started out deeper into the island. He even checked to make sure he had everything he would need packed. As far as he knew he had everything and even things he probably wouldn’t. It never hurt to be prepared.

He flinched when a memory flashed through his head. He dropped the thermos he was holding and clutched his head. He never remembered the flashes being painful. He only knew that they faded much too soon. _"Don't you know that killing a dragon is suicide? It takes a life to kill one. I don't want it to be yours. Please, find another way."_

_He looked at him sadly, and with a sinking feeling he knew that there was no other way. “I would if I could. But I can’t. We have a duty to fulfil. We are the kings of this kingdom, we are the warriors that protect the ones that need protecting, we are the ones that give up their lives to make people able to live their lives untouched by the shadows. We don’t get to take the easy way out.”_

All of a sudden the memory faded, leaving him a feeling of sorrow. He didn't know what it was from, but he rushed over to a book filled with frantic scribblings and wrote down what he had heard, what he had experienced. The book was full of disconnected words and places and feelings, all from flashes that sometimes never lasted him long enough to transcribe the whole experience.  He glanced over some other passages before closing it abruptly when he heard someone enter his room. He turned around, keeping the book behind his back. It was just Matt. He was about to relax when something occurred to him. He didn't look the same. It was hard to describe, but he just didn't. There was something about him that had changed. What it was he couldn't pinpoint. He didn’t look like the nervous man afraid of his own shadow that clutched papers and pens and histories that no one but him cared about. He looked like a man that had been through too much.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes scanning the room. He looked genuinely concerned. "I heard something fall."

He glanced at the thermos he had dropped, his eyebrows furrowing. There it was again, the feeling that Matt was a friend, that he could trust him before anyone else. "Why do you care?" He heard himself say. They had met only a few days ago. Why would he care about what happened to him? The feelings were unfounded and ridiculous. He was lying to himself. "We barely know each other and you come rushing to my room from the slightest hint of danger."

"Right. We barely know each other." Matt muttered, looking at him sadly. He turned to leave, but he stopped with a hand on the door. "Jeremy, do you... do you remember anything from last night?" he asked with a cracking voice.

That set off a cacophony of warning bells in his head. How did he know about what happened? More importantly, "Do _you_ remember?" There was nothing left from the night before. It ended when Matt’s door opened. Maybe even before that. He didn’t know what happened the night prior, but it was important.

"No," he said shortly, closing the door and walking down the stairs. Jeremy blinked in surprise before finishing packing. It seemed that Matt was in a particularly bad mood. That or something had happened the night before to offend him. Jeremy found himself wandering down the stairs, following the sound of voices. He was soon back at the first floor, people milling about, most of which were from the ship the day before. He wound through all of them, looking for Caiti or even Matt, someone he knew.

_"You... you know who I am, right?"_ a memory whispered in his ear. He flinched, almost bumping into Griffon.

“Oh! Watch out, Jeremy. You wouldn’t want to get trampled,” she joked. She looked leagues happier than anyone else did. At least someone was in a good mood.

"Hey, Jeremy!" He heard from across the room. After saying a quick hellogoodbye to Griffon he followed the voice, finding Caiti at the other end. She was smiling and Matt stood next to her, a bag over his shoulder and a scowl on his face. It was the first time he could remember that he had seen him with anything other than nervousness and mild panic as a constant expression.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, and Matt's scowl only deepened. He glanced over Jeremy before stomping away. He turned back to Caiti. "What's wrong with him?"

She shrugged, looking mildly concerned. She seemed to care about most people, even when she had no obligation or need to. She cared about people without looking for anything in return, and that was something Jeremy just couldn’t do. "I don't know. He's been like that since he came down here. Did you say anything to him?"

"No," he said, though the void in his memory was as apparent as ever. What if he had done something to offend Matt? He wasn't sure why, but it seemed to matter a lot to him. It seemed to matter a lot to him that Matt was anything other than happy.

"Well it can't be helped. Come on, the day fades fast this time of the year." She started walking out the door and Jeremy followed close behind. When they left behind the warmth of the inn he realized just how cold it was. He shivered violently, pulling his coat tighter around him. He hefted his bag and started jogging after Caiti, starting an adventure that he wouldn’t get out of unchanged. But, then again, that was always the fun part. He noticed that Matt was a bit farther away, almost at the forest's edge. "Matt! Slow down, it's dangerous to go alone,” Caiti shouted.

Jeremy could have sworn he heard the man laughing. Matt reached into his pocket, pulling out an empty bottle with a few strange trinkets tied to it. He wasn’t sure what use he had for an empty bottle but who was he to judge? He had sticks in his bag and redstone in his pockets. Who knew when one would need an impromptu wand? "What's that?" he asked. Matt jumped a bit and shoved the bottle back into his pocket. Jeremy frowned, crossing his arms. This was getting out of hand. “What’s your problem with me?”

That seemed to hurt him. He winced, a pained look crossing over his face. He only steeled himself to stand his ground. "I don't have a problem with you. It's just... I'll explain it all when we get to the city, how about that?"

That wasn't what Jeremy wanted to hear. Even though there were feelings urging him to trust Matt he just couldn’t, not when he was being so dishonest and distant. "No. you're acting really weird and I haven't known you for very long but even I can tell." Matt winced again at that. "I don't know you."

"Right. You don't know me." It sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that fact. He turned and started walking, attempting to catch up to Caiti, who had gotten far ahead. Jeremy was about to start walking when he heard a hissing behind him. He glanced back, only to see a spider the size of a small horse rapidly gaining on him. He felt panic seize hold. His heart skipped a beat and his legs got ready to run. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Instead of sprinting he froze, not daring to turn around.

"Don't move," a voice whispered, and suddenly there was a corpse where a spider was a second ago. There was no trace of the hand on his shoulders but for a few rose petals on the ground. He felt his legs go weak and he rushed to catch up to the others. His heart hadn’t slowed down and he was still recovering from his near death experience. Was that the type of thing that the old kings had to deal with on a daily basis? If so he was glad that he hadn’t lived then. Something about that thought didn’t sit right with him. He wasn’t old enough to have been alive when monsters roamed and it was dangerous to walk the roads paved for travelers at night so why was the thought not sitting well with him? And who was the person that saved him? They were still relatively close to the docks, so maybe it was someone gathering wood or something. He was grasping at straws and he knew it, yet he still couldn’t think of an answer that would suit him.

He pulled away from his thoughts. The trees had begun to thin out and the underbrush had become scarce and wiry. They were nearing a cracked wall covered in ivy with gaping holes and crumbled patches in abundance. A creeper had probably blown some of the sections up and time had done the rest. Matt ran his hands across the stone as they climbed through the closest opening. There was a downright _fond_ look on Matt's face that Jeremy found unsettling.

The courtyard hidden inside the walls was mostly overgrown. There was a giant tree near the center, twisting high up into the sky and a broken chair with gold missing from the arms. There were pillars mostly crumbled and small structures that were empty. He didn’t belong here, he could feel it. It was an ancient monument, a memory of what was. He didn’t belong. Good thing they weren’t staying long. The plush red that lined the throne had long since faded but it wasn't hard to visualize how it used to look. Jeremy wondered for a moment what it would have been like to be there when it was full of people shouting for appeals from the king, for more land or justice for a trivial matter of stolen property. His musings were cut short by a hissing. Another hissing. He felt the panic come again and this time there wasn't a hand to stop him.

"What the fuck was that?" He whispered harshly.

Caiti held up a hand, signaling for them to stop. She was staring at an area bathed in shadow. Jeremy saw a flash of green and he knew what was going on. There were creepers. A lot of them. They were so fucked. He felt his throat close and he almost forgot to breathe. "Be very careful. We don't want them to notice us." She began slowly backing away, and he followed her as closely as possible. Matt, however, was just staring. "Matt! We have to leave, come on!"

Instead of listening he stepped forward, a hand outstretched. Jeremy blinked a few times, swearing that he saw his hand glow, if just a little. Caiti, however, was having none of that and yanked him by the back of his coat, extracting a yelp from Matt and a cacophony of hisses from the creepers. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit," Jeremy shouted, running as fast as he could for the exit. He heard two other sets of footsteps pounding hard behind him. Thoughts mainly consisting of a jumbled mess of _Idon’twanttodie_ rushed through his head repeatedly. There was the sound of beating wings and suddenly he was on the ground. He twisted around, trying to get a good look at what was certainly going to be his death, but what he saw was not what he expected. There was a man standing in front of them, though maybe man wasn't the right term. He had horns and scales and _wings_. A voice in his head said dragon, though he was sure he had never seen one before.

A sword whistled through the air and there were a few explosions that left craters in the ground and the smell of smoke in the air. The dragon's hands were a blur and the creeper's explosions seemed to do nothing more than irritate him. It reminded him of what he had read about them before. A dragon could not be killed without a sacrifice, though what that entailed was never specified. A dragon was impervious to injuries as long as they were done by a weapon less powerful then a diamond weapon, though only a few of those existed in the world. When the creepers were all dead he turned around and Jeremy heard what he was thinking. "Kdin?" Matt asked, sounding almost joyful.

He smiled a smile full of sharp teeth and genuine happiness (and even a little bit of pride). Jeremy’s thoughts were swirling, trying to process what he was seeing. It was _Kdin._ The one that was on the ship, the one that was in the alley, telling him that he could go to Patch if he kept his mouth shut and played his part. Only good things would happen to him if he played his part. Jeremy wasn’t sure what his part was anymore. "The one and only."

He heard Matt get up and practically throw himself on Kdin. He hugged him much tighter then was necessary. "I missed you so much," Jeremy heard him whisper. Had they known each other before? Had he known that Kdin wasn't human? It seemed likely. He wasn't reeling from the reveal quite as much as Jeremy was. He took a deep breath and forced himself to accept what was happening. He came here to learn magic. He should have expected something weird to happen, though a dragon wasn’t quite what he had in mind.

Kdin seemed surprised, though soon enough he was smiling a weak smile and his eyes seemed just a little wetter. "You remembered, then?"

"How could I forget you?" It sounded more like he was reprimanding himself. Jeremy felt like he needed to say something before it got too intimate. He felt like he needed to say something before he went insane. He had accepted that Matt wasn’t going to tell him anything but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hold a conversation with them and try to get any information out of them that he could.

"Um... thanks for saving me earlier." His comment was met with confusion.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I just showed up."

"Ha, yeah. So you're saying the king's ghost is what saved me." He had meant it as a joke but was met with absolute seriousness. He shifted awkwardly. This wasn’t supposed to be where the conversation went. "You _are_ joking, right?"

Instead of answering Kdin turned to Matt, asking, "Does... does he not remember?" He shook his head.

"Alright, thanks for keeping me in the loop guys." He said angrily. He pointed at Kdin. "Since when were you a dragon?" It seemed right somehow, but he was sure this was the first time he had met one in person. He pointed at Matt. "What's this about remembering?" Finally he turned to Caiti, who had been letting everyone have their moment. "And how far is it to the city?"

"It's a few more hours," she replied, in the same instant that, "I've always been a dragon" and, "I'll explain it when we get to the city," were shouted. Jeremy sighed heavily.

"If you won't explain until we get to the city then let's go."

He had no idea that they were being followed.


	6. I just stood there, silent, rooted to the spot, marveling at how brave I'm not.

 The city was as grand as he remembered. It was admittedly a bit more crumbled and a bit more empty but it was still the city full of light and laughter. It was still the place he had spent countless nights, wondering what the morning would bring, since he had no plans to keep on living but he didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. It was still the city where he had traveled in his many journeys to find the sword that had cursed him. It was still the city that housed everyone from noblemen to commoners. It was still Achievement City, a home to anyone searching. The keep, what served as the housing for the king, speared into the sky, disappearing into the clouds. It had a strange emptiness that it had never carried when it was alive. When people still lived there it was alive, happy, and warm. It was comfort and protection. Now it was just a pile of rock, covered in cracks and leaves that slowly pulled it back into the earth. They had passed the court long ago, though it was crumbled and empty. What had once served as the hub of justice and fanciful celebrations had been infested with monsters and horrible memories of what had happened there. The Mad King’s execution had changed the court beyond repair. It was rarely happy, especially without the First King to watch over it. It almost seemed like the dead king’s spirit was still there, still trying to leave his mark on the world. The city, though similarly populated by monsters and ghosts, still looked the same. Sure, most windows were shattered and the shutters were closed tight or long broken in the wind, but to was still the same city. The square was clear, the tombs and statues surrounding it serving as the people who usually sat by the fountain. He felt Kdin tense up next to him.

"What's wrong?" He asked. He knew that even if Kdin had ever visited he would still have the same reaction. Even back then the city had been desolate and hidden; a landmark in the middle of nowhere that aided no one, for no one remembered what it used to be.  The city wasn’t the same, and he would have to accept that. It wasn’t a happy place anymore. It was only a pile of ruins left behind for people to wonder about, to examine under a microscope, to speculate and to _not care_ about the dead that would never again walk the streets.

"I don't like it here. It's full of cursed ghosts and vengeful monsters. I don't belong here."

Matt blinked. He didn’t want Kdin to feel that way. It was like hearing him say that he didn’t like his own home. It was strange to hear, and even stranger to think about. How did he feel like he didn’t belong? This was _Achievement City._ Everyone was welcome, even dragons. "Nonsense. You told me about how you met the First King and his consorts when they came to the End. From what you've said they liked you."

Kdin looked away. "Alright, well I might not have been completely truthful. We didn't talk much. Actually, I was the only one doing the talking. I think I scared them, honestly." He had hidden his wings to make it easier to wind through the smaller side streets of the dead city. Matt felt his own wings itching to come out. But he couldn't do that. Not yet. Not until Jeremy remembered. When that happened, when they were all together again, just like the old days, and then they would sit down and talk.

"Hey! Are you assholes going to keep talking or are you coming into the house? I doubt you want to carry those bags anymore." Speaking of Jeremy, he was shouting at them from a small wood panel house that looked far more put together and maintained then all of the other buildings. It felt much more alive. He had been angry at them ever since Matt had refused to tell him anything. He had refused to talk to them while Matt whispered to Kdin about the plan and all the details about what had happened. It wasn't Matt’s fault. He didn't want to chase away the only friend he had with tales of cursed swords and dragons. But it seemed like he was inadvertently doing just that just by withholding information. Maybe he should just come clean and explain it all. But then again, would Jeremy even trust him enough? It was strange, to think of such an old friend that way. They had been through so much together it was hard to think that he would have to rebuild their friendship from the ground up if he never remembered.

He walked up to the house, Kdin trailing close behind. Inside it was warm and cozy, a few cots set up on the floor. Matt let his bag fall near the others and he wandered over to a sulking Jeremy. Suddenly he wasn’t in his city anymore. Suddenly he was somewhere that he didn’t belong. He was supposed to be out there, among the dying stones and the whispering wind. He wasn’t supposed to be alive, not after the dragon, not after the sword, not after the raid. He should have died that day when the men with their torches and swords rode in on horses made of fear and death. He should have perished with his family and home. He shook those thoughts away. It was over, he was alive, and now he had a mission to fulfil. Today was not a day for self-pity. "So. What do you think of the city?" He asked Jeremy awkwardly.

"I think it's time you started talking," he said angrily, poking Matt in the chest. He smiled a strained sort of smile, knowing that he couldn’t just yet. He couldn’t just sit down and start talking to the man that had been his very best friend for the longest time like they hadn’t known each other all those years. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“You’re looking at me like I deserve pity. You’re treating me like a fragile doll that’ll break the second you put it down. I don’t care how fucked up it is, I don’t _care_ if it’s weird or unbelievable. I just want you to be truthful with me.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but instead of answering he pulled out the empty bottle, feeling it get uncomfortably hot in his pocket. All of the trinkets had a faint glow to them and a power that suggested their journey was almost over. He smiled, knowing that he wouldn’t have to explain it to Jeremy if everything went according to plan. "Caiti," he shouted. Her face popped out from a side door.

"What?"

"I'm going out to the city. Jeremy's coming with me."

"Alright," she replied, already busy with whatever it was she was doing. "Just don't get yourselves killed."

He grabbed Jeremy's hand and pulled him out the door and into the streets. Kdin had to jump out of the way to avoid Matt, who was marching towards the square as fast as Jeremy would allow. "Hey, where are you guys going?"

"To the graves,” he yelled over his shoulder. Kdin quickly followed, looking both excited and worried. Matt, however, was confident it would work. How could it not? He had gone through so much shit that the universe owed him this at the very least.

"What!?" Jeremy yelled, trying to rip out of Matt's grasp. "I don't want to go there! Don't make me go there!"

"You want answers, right?" Jeremy nodded reluctantly. "Then we're going to the graves." This time there was no arguing as he continued on his way.

The square was a bit more ominous with the sun setting. The shadows obscured holes in the walls and the still, dark water in the star shaped fountain wasn't quite what he remembered. Around the fountain, at each tip of the star's points there was an ornate building. Each one had a distinct look and feel. There was a welcoming, wooden one that said all could find shelter there. He remembered it from when he visited the city for the first time. Many homeless children tended to sleep in the tomb, though back then the tombs were a bit more open and a bit happier. There was a large oak pushing its way through its roof. He decided that the welcoming one was as good as any to start with. He walked towards it, picking out the leaf from the trinkets. It was glowing brighter the closer he got to the Builder King's grave. The door was sealed shut. It was more of a rock, truthfully. After pondering what to do for a moment he finally settled on touching the door with the leaf. It burst into flames on contact.

"Woah, dude what the fuck are you doing?" Jeremy yelled before he fell silent. The door made a grinding sound as it slowly pulled away, leaving the grave open for anyone to enter. "Oh," he said dully. Matt smiled, happy that it had only taken one try to open it. If it took that long then before the sun rose Jeremy would have his memory back.

"Who's is this?" Kdin asked, running his hand over the door’s carvings. There were trees expertly brought to life again, carved expertly into the wood. Even the building itself was a masterpiece. It had neither grandiose colors nor any jewels, yet it was still a sight to behold.  

"The Carpenter King,” he said, almost stepping inside. A hand appeared on his shoulder, stopping him. Jeremy gave him a look that said he deserved an explanation before stepping inside a grave. "We're going to get you to remember." Kdin nodded behind him, following close behind into the shadows.

Inside there were leaves, yellow and brown and green, all over the earthen ground. It was empty but for a figure sprawled on the ground, a cloak tattered and overgrown lying on top. It seemed like the tree itself was trying to pull him back in with branches wrapped around his body. The king groaned, stirring and pushing himself off the ground. He blinked at the faint light still filtering through the stones. His face was covered in a wiry orange beard and flowers that Matt knew weren't just trapped in the hairs. Each king was cursed; this one to be what he killed every day. A carpenter needed trees. A king had no use of them.

"Are you the ones Ray kept talking about?" He asked groggily. "It's about time you showed up." He tried to stand, only to collapse again under his own weight. "Shit," he grunted. "Dragon guy, give me a hand." Kdin blinked in surprise, though he rushed forward anyways, helping the king to his feet. Matt quickly looked over the man, seeing a person that looked nothing like the pictures in history books. He was tall, his cloak embossed with something that looked faintly like a skull. His pants were a faded red and his shirt a pale blue. He had the build for a king and the potential for a ruler, but for all that he looked like a man. There was nothing kingly about the warm smile and kind eyes. He wore no crown.

He seemed to notice that everyone was staring at him. "What?" He asked defensively. When no one answered he exhaled heavily, looking a bit put off. "Am I the first one out, then?"

"Yeah," Matt finally said. It was time to get moving. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was a little star struck.  "We're planning on getting you all out."

The king brightened at that. "Great! We should get Gavin next. Or maybe Michael and Lindsay."

Matt had no idea which kings belonged to the names he was spitting out but he guessed Lindsay was the Phoenix Queen. "We could get... Lindsay out next." The king made a motion that said go on, then. He started walking out of the tomb when he felt Jeremy grab his arm.

"What the fuck is going on?" He whispered angrily. Matt could tell that he was close to snapping. Maybe it was time to explain a few things.

"I told you. We're going to get you to remember." Jeremy gave him a look that said that wasn't enough. "The only person who can do that is..." He paused for a moment, trying to remember what name Ray has said. "Ryan. Hey, um..." He realized he didn't know what the Carpenter King's name was.

"Jack."

"Jack. Which king is Ryan?"

"Ryan isn't a king." He said with some confusion. A look of realization crossed his face. "Oh, you mean... you're looking for the Mad King, though Ryan would probably be easier to talk to. I don't actually know what happened to him. Apparently Ray can't talk to them like he can us."

Matt wasn't quite sure what that was supposed to mean, but he decided that he would find out when everyone was out and Jeremy remembered. Saying “them” instead of “him” wasn’t a good sign. It was probably just his curse. The most important part of this was getting Jeremy to remember, so it wasn’t of immediate concern. There was a little bit of dread building in his stomach, though. The Mad King had been killed for treason and murder and heresy and just about everything you could be charged with. Matt couldn’t assume that he would be all sunshine and rainbows when he was released. Kdin was still helping Jack, though it looked like he would soon be able to walk on his own.

The next grave was a bit bigger then Jack's had been. On one side it was warm reds and oranges, with carvings of birds and ladies decorating the sides. On the other it was mainly cold blues and dark yellows, accented by carvings of bears and swords. The entrance had a couple with crossed swords guarding the door. It seemed to be at war with itself on what it wanted to be. On one hand it wanted to be welcoming, on the other it shrieked “get away before it’s too late!” The Wild King had been cursed to become a bear, the Queen a bird. If the legends were to be believed they had an inner war waging in each of them. On one side it was who they were as humans, on the other it was blind anger and blissful ignorance. Matt pulled out the bottle again, this time touching the door with the feather and the bear claw.  The swords withdrew and the door opened. It was Jack who went in first, eager to see his friends again.

By the time they made it in there were two strangers talking quickly to Jack. They all had bright smiles on their faces, the looks of friends reunited once again. Matt had felt the same way when Kdin had reappeared, so he let them continue. "You wouldn't believe how cramped it was in those damn cells. Can you call them cells? I'm not sure. Whatever, it was really fucking uncomfortable. If Ray hadn't come as often as he did I probably would have gone insane."

"Don't be silly, Michael. You had me that entire time. You would have been fine."

"Yeah, well you get what I mean."

Matt decided to speak up before the conversation got out of hand. It had turned in a direction that would take way too long to end. He didn’t have that kind of time right now. "Hey, um, we still have a few more people to get out. We can talk after." The two strangers nodded and they all left the tomb, heading to the next one.

This one was made almost completely out of cobblestone and had many pieces of artwork inside. Through the slightly tinted windows made to emulate stained glass he saw the chaotic inside, a mess of color and shapes. The outside was mostly bland, though the stones were blackened and burned in some places, looking as if it was the result of multiple explosions. There were two cold braziers flanking the doors, scorched and empty. After using the arrow head to open the door Michael raced inside, yelling something about "his boi."

The king they found had a strange accent and was covered in patches of skin that resembled a creeper. His eyes even looked like sunken black holes, though he seemed nice enough. Seemed was the keyword, since Matt couldn't understand a word he said. The words that came out of his mouth were hisses and clicks, making Matt look around for the creeper before realizing it was the king. They were quick to leave the Foolish King’s tomb, mostly since the king was the first to rush out. Even though Matt couldn’t understand what he said he knew that he was tired of his prison as much as the others were.

"Gavin! Don't say shit like that." Lindsay reprimanded as they walked to the last tomb. "They got us out, isn't that enough to warrant you to at least give them a chance?" Gavin hissed something quietly and Lindsay sighed. Matt guessed that it was something less than positive about him, Jeremy, and Kdin.

The final tomb was quite possibly the most unwelcoming. It was covered in sharp points and skulls and skeletons. There were jagged edges carved from obsidian and eyes staring through the walls. There was no door on this one, only a gaping hole. Matt shivered, feeling a foreboding aura emanating from the inside. He had a feeling that it wouldn’t be as simple as pressing a trinket to a stone door. "Are you sure you want to go in there?" Ray asked, causing everyone to jump. Gavin hissed something and Ray just shrugged. "I just got here. I figured Matt could handle this on his own. Ryan, though, is a different matter. He's... he probably got the worst lot out of all of you."

"Care to elaborate, Ray?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, sure. So you know when you remember your past lives and past experiences? How you're kind of trapped there for a while?" There were a few nods from the crowd. Jeremy looked confused, though there was a flicker behind his eyes that said he was starting to understand what this was all about. "Well it changes depending on how old you are. Obviously you all had a long time to cope with them because I let you out and let you interact with the world. You all healed. But... I can't do that with Ryan."

"Why not?" Michael asked angrily, his hands curling into claws for just a moment. "You seemed just fine talking to us when it suited your needs. Do you just not care about him?"

"No, no, it's not like that. He just... won't let me. I think it's the king. I think... well, I think he's still heavily trapped in the past. And, well, since the Mad King was the only one of Geoff's consorts to be executed I can't expect him to be the most reasonable of people." He looked over everyone. "You might want to stay outside for this. He could be a bit... unstable."

Gavin hissed something that sounded a bit like "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well... I'm not sure. Anything could happen, but I don't want him to carry the guilt of hurting any of you." That sparked a flood of arguments that he wasn’t ready to deal with.

As the voices rose in volume and intensity Matt turned away from the conversation and swallowed hard. The hole in the wall seemed to suck all life away, a foreboding space that promised everything bad and nothing good. Not even the sun’s dying rays put a dent in the dark. He took a step forward, then another, feeling like his feet were encased in cement. He pushed through, and soon he was on the other side. He felt the tomb tear his disguise away, revealing the half-dragon hiding underneath. He turned back around, panic taking hold. He didn't want them to see him like this. Not yet, at least. What he saw was a wall. The door was gone.

He rushed towards the wall where the door had been, pounding on the stone. He tried to melt the rocks away with his fire and he even tried using the crown. Nothing happened. He was alone, and that was that. His hands curled into fists and he sank to the ground. "Is anyone there?" He yelled out into the dark. There was no answer but a guttural growling somewhere in the labyrinth that was the Mad King’s grave.


	7. Look into my eyes, now you're getting sleepy. Are you hypnotized by secrets that you're keeping?

He wasn't sure how long he had been wandering. The entire tomb was a labyrinth with no rhyme or reason. Every corner looked the same with cracked stones and pitch blackness and in every step he found deep routed terror. The growls grew ever closer, and once he had even glanced the towering beast in the corner of his eye. His fires burned bright, illuminating the tomb for all the good that it did him. The walls were the same, the ground was always frozen and hard, and nothing changed. He felt like he was walking in circles. There were rusted swords lying forlorn and cracked and broken picture frames littering the ground. It looked like they were meant to represent the history of the king but he couldn’t guess what the small bits of shattered glass or the burned out torches on the ground meant. He had almost lost hope of finding the king hidden within when he heard something. It sounded like shouting. He ran as fast as he could towards the sound, finding himself in what looked like a dimly lit study.

There were two men facing off, one with a cactus green cape and a regal crown atop his head. The other was drowned in shadow, the blacks and reds of his clothes melting him into the dim light cast by the candles. Neither of them looked happy, and neither of them was quiet. They both had an overpowering feeling about them, as if they were battling in wills as much as words. There was a strong feeling of malice around one of them. "You must," the Mad King insisted. "You know as well as I that if we let these... outlaws continue as they are then it will only get worse."

"And you know as well as I that they are not outlaws. We can't help that some people aren't as fortunate as the nobles or middle class but the least we could do is let them continue in peace-" Matt didn't hear the rest. The shouts were rapidly receding behind him and he was already gone, running from the shouting memories, because that was all they were. They weren't real people, at least not anymore, and if he wanted to get out of the maze he would have to find the actual king, not the echoes he left behind.

He ran through the memory's halls, finding more and more people shouting or talking or dying. In one room it had vaulted ceilings and was crushingly empty. The only resident was the king, dressed in torn and bloody garments and muttering to himself on the ground. Another was a small house with the other kings sleeping soundly on the ground. Gavin was staring at the Mad King, and Matt wanted to shout at him to get away, to run, because there was no way he was going to let him go in peace. The memories sped by, faster than he could process them. His legs moved as he heard the growling and groaning get ever closer. In between all of the chaos of the memories he caught a glimpse of what he was looking for.

The room had no windows or doors but for the one he had come through. The walls were all the same stone, unblemished and smooth, no cracks anywhere. The room crackled with magic, both to keep the room intact and the labyrinth alive. The only resident of the room was a man with hair the color of dead wheat in chains hooking him to a wall. His hands and arms were covered with the metal, keeping him from moving them even a little bit. His once regal clothes had long since become torn and filthy. His hair fell into his eyes in such a way that made it difficult for Matt to tell if he was awake. He stumbled forward a bit, brushing the hair out of his face. The king's eyes fluttered open. They were a blue the shade of a thunderstorm. He groaned, scrunching his eyes closed in pain. "Leave," he said in a cracked and useless voice. "You can't be here. You shouldn't be here. He's going to escape. Oh, God what have you done? I can _feel_ him." The king's shoulders slumped and his head fell forward. He wasn’t sure how to react to that, but he knew that out of all of the kings Ryan was the most unstable, at least from what Ray and the others had said. He didn’t know what his curse was but he guessed it was nothing good. Outside of the room he heard the dull thuds of something walking past.

Matt shifted through his pockets, looking for the key, only to stop when he heard something. It was _laughing_ , and it was coming from the king. Suddenly Matt understood when Jack had said the Ryan wasn't a king. He understood why he had said "they" instead of "he." The Mad King's eyes opened, two blood red pools in the sea of darkness. The laughing reached a crescendo before abruptly ending. He stared at Matt, a smile slowly stretching its way across his face. "Well hello there, dragon. It's nice to finally talk to someone after all these years." His voice was sweet, though that only made it worse. His body lurched against the chains, trying to escape, all the while never breaking eye contact with Matt. He felt like he was falling, drowning in the king's eyes. He felt his whole body relax and every free thought he had drain away. "Why don't you be a good little dragon and release me, huh? Wouldn't that be just great?"

He felt like his mouth was glued shut and his body moved of its own accord. He tried to think, he really did, but all that resurfaced was the king’s request. He felt like he was asleep, only vaguely aware of his surroundings. His hands slowly curled around the crown, feeling the sharp points dig into his hand. He reached towards the chains, all the while making an attempt to stop his arm. Before his hands made contact with the chains the king jerked away, breaking the spell.

" _Leave_ ," Ryan pleaded. Matt paused, confused as thoughts began to flood into his mind again. The man's face was a panic, with one blue eye and one red. When Matt found the red one he felt the spell try and grab at him again, though this time he lurched back, trying to break it. His body still felt half asleep, though, and he nearly crashed into the opposite wall. He wanted to release the king, right? No, he wanted to leave. No, he was trying to help his friend. "Leave, leave, leave, leave, you have to leave," he muttered. "He'll be back any minute, and when he does you'll be sorry. He's so _angry_ , and I can _feel_ it. He's angry at the world, he's angry at Geoff, he's angry at me. He wants to get out. You can't let that happen."

Ryan jerked violently and the blue in his eye was chased away. The king adjusted himself, motioning for Matt to step forward as best as he could with the chains impeding his movements. "Now now," he hummed sweetly, "There's no need for all of that. You want to be a good dragon, don't you?" Matt felt his head slowly nod as he tried to keep his thoughts around him. He tried to think for himself but it was only getting increasingly more difficult. "Well then why don't you release me? I'm sure you would just love to, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I'd love to," he echoed in a monotone voice. As the last of his few thought melted away he lurched forward and touched the chains with the crown. As they fell away Matt stood there, swaying slightly, an empty head waiting for the king to say something else, to give him a purpose. The Mad King slowly stood, rubbing his arms and hands. He turned to Matt, a terrible smile on his face.

"Good job, my dragon. You've done so well, I should reward you." Matt didn’t respond. Something was wrong, a whispered thought said, but he couldn’t possibly imagine what.  "But, unfortunately, I'm still trapped down here. Why don't you take me home?"

He turned slowly, feeling his feet barely brush the stone. Before he could get more than a few feet, however, he felt a hand grab his throat. He felt it crush his airways and cut off his breathing. He felt panic grip him and it brought the thoughts back to him and he clawed weakly at the hands around his throat, feeling black slowly creep into his vision. "Now, now, that won’t do," the king scolded. "It will all be over soon. Soon you won't have to worry about anything.” He felt his eyes close and the feeling of burning lungs rushed over him. His mind swam and he slowly let unconsciousness take hold. Suddenly he felt the ground rush forward to meet him and the spell was broken.

Matt gasped and sucked in air greedily, feeling his throat quickly heal. He looked up at the king, seeing him clutching his head and shouting. "No, no, no! Get out of my head! Get out, get out!" Suddenly the shouting stopped and the hands dropped. The eyes were a dull brown and the mannerisms weren't something Matt was used to seeing. The eyes slowly focused, noticing him on the ground.

"Dude, hit me." He flinched when the voice that came out of the king's mouth wasn't the king’s. He slowly pushed himself off the ground with shaking arms. He tried to recall all that had happened but it was just a blur of white noise.

"Ray?" Matt asked, confused. He rubbed his head, trying to focus on what had happened. He had released Ryan, which was good. But… something told him that it wasn’t right. Two red eyes swam blurrily in his memory.

"Yeah, hi. Hit me."

"Why?" He asked, already feeling his body move even though he was certain he wasn't trying to.

"Because we need to get him outside but we can't do that if he's trying to kill you. You need to knock him out. You can carry him out or something. I really don’t give a shit, just hit me."

His hands leapt into action, swinging as hard as he could at the king's head. He crumpled to the ground, breaking the spell for good. Ray groaned on the ground, though he had been knocked out of the king’s body. Suddenly Matt understood why it was easier for Ray to explain his curse as his being a ghost. He certainly looked like one. "Damn, you have a strong arm. But you managed to knock the king out. Good thing you didn't knock out-"

Suddenly the body on the ground jerked. Ryan sucked in a panicked breath, propping himself up. His clear blue eyes scanned the room, as if they didn't completely process what he was seeing. His eyes landed on Ray and Matt could see his body physically relax. "O-oh, hello Ray. It's been too long."

If Matt didn't know any better he would say Ray was crying. He had a hand over his mouth, covering the smile that was betrayed by his shining eyes. "Yeah," he chocked out, "it's been way too long."

A low roar echoed through the labyrinth. Ryan jerked violently before getting as far from the exit as possible. He was visibly shaking and his eyes were wide and panicked. "Oh no oh no oh no," he breathed. His hands wandered to his side, though nothing was there. When Ryan discovered that whatever he was looking for wasn't present he started sparking magic, blues and reds and greens lit the cell, giving everything an eerie look. "He can't be here why is he here?"

"Who's here, Ryan?" Ray asked calmly. He seemed to know what to do so Matt shuffled away from them, knowing the conversation was for close friends or at least not complete strangers.

"Edgar," he whispered, and though Matt had no idea who the name belonged to it still instilled fear in his heart. Something about the name seemed cursed, though that was ridiculous. It was just a name. "The boy the king- the boy I- oh, God, why is he here?"

"What happened to him, Ryan?"

"He- I- it wasn't my fault. I didn't know, I wasn't _me_. It was the king, he did it. He cursed that little boy. He cursed the boy, he cursed Michael, he cursed Lindsay and he didn't _care._ "

Ryan seemed to be rapidly deteriorating so Ray rushed to say, "Calm down, dude. We know it's not your fault, but we have to get out of here. Just follow us, alright? We know the way."

They led the shaking man through the tunnels, though this time there was one path to follow. On one hand it was a good thing. On the other... well, there was one place the monster could be. The walls and floor had turned from black walls and frozen dirt to cobblestone and smooth rocks with torches illuminating the tunnels every few feet. The rubble and voices had faded, and there were no long dead memories to haunt the halls. The only ghost was Ray, and he knew that he wanted to get out as much as they all did. Matt felt Ryan grab onto his sleeve, shuffling close behind. The ragged breathing was the only sound for a while. Soon enough, though, they came upon the monster.

It towered above them, the dark skin only looking darker in the torchlight. Its wicked sharp horns seemed to drip obsidian and its eyes seemed to glow a dark red, though for all that they looked human. There were broken chains strung about its shoulders and head that gave a history to the beast. He felt Ryan suddenly straighten next to him, his eyes two shadows. "Go, I'll catch up to you."

This was new, Matt mused. This wasn't the king from before, the one with bloody eyes and a malicious smile. This was one more grounded, more human. Matt wondered for a moment how many people were in that head, but he felt his feet running. His wings pushed him quickly past the monster before he almost crashed into a wall. He stumbled to his feet, hearing a loud roaring. He stood there, hoping that Ryan would come around the corner any minute. Beside him Ray appeared through the bleak stone walls, an apprehensive look on his face. "Where the fuck did Ryan go?"

"He's-"

"He's preoccupied," a voice said beside him. Matt almost jumped when he saw the king there.

Ray's face flashed a variety of emotions, from rage to relief. "Where the fuck were you?"

The king shrugged. "It's complicated. It's like-" a tremor ran through his body. He winced and Matt could have sworn he saw his eyes burn red for a moment. "-like I just woke up. And I- I think I might have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Ray asked, motioning Matt to step away from him. He gladly complied.

"There's too many people in my head. I can't- I can't-" he sounded like a skipping tape. Matt felt like he had to do something so he reached out and gripped his shoulder, eliciting a flinch from the man. When he looked back his eyes were blue. “S-shit, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure, Ryan?” Ray asked, looking like he was going to carry the man if he had to and if he could have he would have. He only nodded, and Matt knew that he probably wasn’t going to be fine. He turned to Ray, whispering what had been on his mind.

“What’s his curse?”

“ _Well,_ ” Ray said much too loudly, “Pretty much all you need to know is that he’s the most fucked up out of all of us. Even more so now then when I met him for the first time.”

Ryan tapped Matt’s shoulder, a frown fixed firmly on his face. “You know I’m still here, right? I’ve been this way for as long as I’ve existed, I can handle it. Sure, it’s usually just two of us, but I don’t think the original king is going to be showing up again if James has anything to say about it.”

“Wait,” Ray said, a smirk growing on his face, “Who’s James?”

“The other king.” As Ray snickered and Ryan rolled his eyes and continued, “Well I can’t exactly keep calling him the king with two of them. _Anyways_ ,” he said forcefully, turning to face Matt again, “I’m Ryan and if you haven’t caught on by now, I’m the curse.”

“Wait, what?” he said stupidly.

“When James ruled over the kingdom, long after Geoff had died and long before the others were reincarnated, he put his complete focus on making a potion that acted the same way as the End’s fountain did. He found a book hidden in the library of the castle, one that had recipes for potions and incantations and spells. He found one for immortality and immediately started working on it, pushing everything else to the back of his mind.” Around them the tunnel had turned into a castle, one with vaulted ceilings and dusty corridors. It was empty but for one man who was constantly hunched over a book, taking notes on its contents and following its directions. “After a while the prototype for the potion was complete and… well, he needed a test subject.

“He found a kid, just some kid on the streets who didn’t belong anywhere, and promised him something great if he would just help him with one little thing. He said yes, of course, and, well, the potion wasn’t quite ready. Its curse was too powerful, too severe. It turned the little boy into a monster, and he had to put it somewhere because, as much as people didn’t believe it, he cared about what happened to his kingdom, at least a little bit. He locked him below the castle, in the labyrinth that was left behind by centuries old kings.” The large and spacious rooms were replaced by a dark tunnel, one resembling what the labyrinth had looked like.

“When he finally figured out how to make it he went looking for the last piece of the puzzle. Unlike the End’s fountain there was one thing that was necessary to get the potion to work, and that was what he calls his first death. He went looking for the monster he had created, and he found it down below the castle. And that’s where I was born, in a sense. His curse was to become the person he never wanted to be, a coward. And that’s me.”

The memories faded and there was silence. Matt let the new information process and he started walking down the tunnels again, hearing Ryan follow close behind. Soon enough they reached the entrance, and they shared a look. Matt looked at his hands, his wings, his horns, and took a deep breath. It was time to get Jeremy back, it was time to end this whole ordeal. They stepped through the doorway and into the city.


	8. I've reclaimed the use of my imagination. For better or for worse, I've yet to know.

When he noticed that Matt wasn't present in the mob of arguing people he immediately felt panic grow in his stomach. Out of all the confusion and voices and faces he didn’t quite recognize he finally noticed that there was one person missing. He glanced all around the area, looking for the one familiar face out of all the insanity that had happened in one day. "Hey, guys," he said, though he wasn't heard. They kept on yelling, arguing. About what he wasn’t sure. He had stopped paying attention a while ago. "Guys!" He said again, louder this time. The arguing abruptly stopped. Everyone was staring at him like they just realized he was there. "Where the hell is Matt?"

"He's right... oh," the man he had learned was Ray said, a confused look growing on his face. He looked around the courtyard, a look of panic quickly overtaking the confusion. "Hey, guys, where's Matt?"

The one who looked strangely like a creeper hissed something, and Ray looked like he was about to punch something. He leaned over to the girl who was standing next to him, whispering, "What did he just say?"

She looked at him with surprise, as if she wasn't aware that he was there. Was he invisible or something? Did they just not care? "Oh, he said, 'He went into the tomb. I wanted to see how long it would take you to notice. It's been ten minutes.'"

"Oh," Jeremy said weakly. How had he not noticed sooner? Maybe it was because he was so lost in thought. He had been trying to piece together all they had happened and he was fairly certain he knew what was going on. He had known Matt before, though for some reason he couldn't remember it. It seemed likely that Kdin had been there too, though a dragon wasn't exactly something he would have expected. He wasn't sure how the kings tied into it, but he assumed it had something to do with getting him to remember. As frustrating as it was to be kept out of the loop for so long he was starting to understand why. If he had remembered in Matt’s place he wasn’t sure that he would have tried to explain it all before he remembered. It would be easier and with a lot less heartbreak to just wait. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to talk to an age old friend without them recognizing him.

"I'm going in after him,” Ray said. Jeremy felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He didn’t know Ray that well, but at least there was someone who would be able to help his friend. In his current state he was almost useless, and he hated feeling like that, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was the only one there that didn’t have a strong grasp of magic or how the rules of this whole ordeal worked. Everywhere he looked he saw sparks of magic, moving and breathing like it was a living being. It clung to everyone, even him, though he was the only one that couldn’t wield it properly. Ray sat down next to where the door had been, crossing his arms and legs. Once he was comfortable he closed his eyes as if he was going to fall asleep then and there. "Don't fuck with my body while I'm gone."

Jeremy felt his eyes widen. For a moment it looked like there were two Rays, one sitting on the ground and one standing, looking almost transparent. The ghost Ray turned and quickly walked through the wall. He glanced at everyone else, expecting them to have similar expressions on their faces. They looked uninterested. Either they didn’t see what Jeremy had or they had seen it too often for it to carry the same impact. When a few minutes passed with silence the first person to speak up was Michael. "I'm going to sleep. I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough shit happen today to last me all my lifetimes." He stretched and yawned loudly, causing everyone else to react similarly. "Where are you two sleeping?" He asked, pointing to Kdin and Jeremy.

"There's a house a few minutes away that's serving as a base. We probably have enough blankets for all of you." Kdin was helpful in providing the information. Jeremy wasn’t sure how he felt about virtual strangers sharing a house with them, however long they might be staying. Since his original plan had been knocked of the rails he figured he could just wait and see what his missing memories brought back. But there was one thing he wanted to do.

Michael nodded, looking relieved that they wouldn't have to sleep outside in the cold or spend another moment in the tombs. "Sounds good. Come on, guys."

"Wait," Jeremy heard himself say, "I'm staying." It was hard to explain, but he felt like he needed to. It wasn't like he remembered whatever it was Matt wanted him to remember but over the past few days it was hard to say that he hadn't grown attached to the man. He couldn’t just leave and wait for the morning to come and Matt with it. He was going to wait for him. It couldn’t take that long. The tomb wasn’t that big.

"Are you sure?" Kdin asked, looking a little concerned. He wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the monsters that had ceased to terrify him or the cold. At least he assumed it was cold. For some reason he couldn't feel the cold, though there was a definite lack of warmth. He wasn't sure if it was the night or him. He shivered as a memory streaked through his mind. A clash of steel, the sound of fire, blackness. He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he opened his eyes he saw Kdin, the dragon that had decided to help them when the kingdom was most in need of it. "Are you alright?"

"Kdin?" He mumbled, feeling like he was about to fall asleep. "I had the weirdest dream. I couldn't remember who I was for a while. I thought I was living my life as I should have been. But I wasn't... I _wasn't_." He stared intently at Kdin's eyes, feeling two warm hands holding him up.

"Is he alright?" A voice asked somewhere that he couldn't see.

"I'm not sure," Kdin muttered, shaking him a little. "Jeremy, are you alright? Do you... do you remember?"

"What are you talking about? Did I forget something?" He flinched away from Kdin, feeling a sharp pain race through his skull. He felt like his identity was being cut from him again, he felt like his whole life was slipping through his fingers. He clutched his head, trying to keep everything inside. Soon enough, though, he was Jeremy again, the rookie Mage that hoped to find magic on the forgotten island. He looked at the faces staring at him, furrowing his brow, knowing he had forgotten something important. "What happened?"

"You wanted to stay here for the night," Kdin said, looking a bit sad. He didn't know why. Maybe he had said something to make him that way, like he had probably said something to Matt to offend him. Maybe it had something to do with his memories again. It always seemed to go back to that.

"Oh, yeah. You guys go ahead and go to the safe house. I'll be fine." As they walked away he leaned heavily against the tomb’s wall and sighed deeply. He knew something was wrong, but he had no idea what. It kept coming back to his memory. There was something there, something shouting, something pleading to be released. He looked at his shaking hands and saw that the tips of his fingers were blue and his skin looked paper thin and pale. He rubbed them together, trying to generate some warmth. It didn't work.

He stood there a while, trying to sort through everything that had happened. He had been so sure of what he wanted to do when he stepped on that ship. Somewhere it had all come apart. Somewhere his desires had stopped mattering because there was a whole life he had forgotten. Somewhere along the line he had become a different person, and truthfully he was scared of who he used to be. He didn’t like the idea of another Jeremy existing somewhere in his head, locked away with the other memories. He didn’t like it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. He had worked to become the person he was now; he didn’t want to throw that away because some divine force had deemed it necessary to remember. He didn’t want to change.

"Hey," a voice said. He looked up from his place on the ground and saw a head full of brown curls and a face scared, both metaphorically and literally. He was holding a blanket and looked slightly uncomfortable. "I, uh, brought you a blanket. I thought it would kind of suck to be out here all night without anything to keep you warm."

He awkwardly handed the blanket to Jeremy who quickly wrapped it around himself. "Thanks." As Michael started walking away he knew he had to ask, even if it was a violation of personal space. "How did you get those scars?"

The man stopped, sighed, and sat down next to him. "Alright, so as much as I hate thinking about it I'm going to tell you because you asked. No one else ever really talked about them. They probably think it’s rude and I’d probably just punch them and leave. I mean I would but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ask. You know who this tomb belongs to?" He asked, rapping his knuckles against the black stone. Jeremy shook his head. He wasn’t entirely sure who Michael was, either. He had never bothered learning a lot of practical history since it went generally untaught. "Well his name was the Mad King. He lived twice, like I did and like most of the others did. The first time he was a consort to Geoff, or, as he was called back then, the First King. He was probably the worst consort, though not because he shirked his duties. Oh, no, he reveled in them. The problem was he didn't exactly have the best moral compass. Eventually his actions landed him a place on the business end of an axe and he was executed. But, since Geoff didn't like the fact that his consorts would all die someday, he was destined to be reborn. His rebirth was a bit earlier than most of ours, but it still happened. Once again, he was the Mad King, except this time he didn't care about his duties, only himself. He worked towards immortality, even if it's price was a curse."

"But... what does that have to do with your scars?"

Michael sighed heavily, tracing the angry lines on his face with a finger. "He wasn't a good person. He didn't care about his kingdom, he let it starve and crumble. A group of rebellious knights decided enough was enough and planned to kill the king for his neglect." He scrunched his eyes shut and slammed a fist on the ground, a guttural growl escaping his lips. "I was such an _idiot_. Not only did I punish the wrong person, the king had planned for someone to take his throne. Ryan didn’t deserve what he got. He probably didn’t understand what was going on. The day they crowned me in the Mad King's place was the day the curse he had laid for the next in line took hold. You see, when he was developing the potion to give him immortality he had made many prototypes, each with some defect. The one left for me to find worked just fine, but it's curse was specifically engineered. The curse slowly strips away the person's humanity, leaving behind a blind emotion and some sort of animal to embody that emotion. Mine was rage. Lindsay's was bliss.

"A bear and a bird ruled a kingdom for two short years before we couldn't hold the curse back anymore. I’m alright now, at least for the most part. It took years to start controlling the curse, though. Back when we still ruled I was getting more irrational, more wild as time went by. Lindsay couldn't focus on anything longer than a few seconds before she either forgot what she was doing or it didn't matter anymore. The day the animals manifested was when we left." He grabbed the bottom of his tunic, pulling it up high enough for Jeremy to see a considerably thicker scar running from his right hip to his left shoulder. "This scar, all of them, are reminders of that day. A bear has claws and there's nothing stopping them from tearing apart everyone, even the bear itself."

"That's not the scar of a bear claw." Even he knew that much.

He stared at Jeremy silently. "No, it's not." It was the scar left behind by a sword held clumsily and pointed the wrong way. Michael stared at the ground. He breathed heavily, a small drop of blood running through his tightly clenched fingers. He sat there for a while before his eyes opened again and his hands relaxed. “I’m good, I’m fine.”

Jeremy looked at the man, waiting for him to snap again. When he didn’t he asked another question that had been bothering him for the longest time. “What did you do when you remembered who you used to be?”

“Is this because of your amnesia or whatever it is?” Jeremy nodded reluctantly. “Well I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Like, sure you’re basically two different people but you’re also still you. A curse can’t take away who you are. It can warp it and crack it but at the end of the day you’re still you. It couldn’t change the Mad King, it had to create a whole different person to take his place. Whoever you were is who you are now. The only difference is that he remembers everything and you don’t.”

Jeremy stared at his hands. They were blue and shaking and _cold,_ but they were still his. “Thanks.”

“No problem. I have to get back to the house now, though. They expected me back by now.” Michael pushed himself off the ground and turned to leave. A hand appeared on his arm, stopping him.

“Yo, Michael, I don’t want to be pushy but you might want to stay. Ryan’s coming back, like right now.” Jeremy looked at Ray, surprised to see that he was up again. To be honest he had forgotten that he was even there.

The wall near them suddenly seemed to collapse, revealing a door where there hadn't been one before. A man stumbled out that he didn't recognize. He looked haggard and tired and his eyes were dim and almost lifeless. They were scary to look at. There was an energy about him that was dark and dangerous, though not quite to the degree monsters had. When he opened his mouth to speak Jeremy flinched at how weak it sounded. "You're the one I'm fixing, right?"

Jeremy opened his mouth, trying to form some sort of response, but he couldn't think of anything. Fix? Did he mean his memories? He felt two shaking hands grab his head and all of a sudden he was staring at those lightless eyes and they were staring back with equal intensity. His first instinct was to get away, to run, but he couldn’t move. He felt something stir in his mind, something that had been trying to break out the whole time. As his memories finally came back he felt cold tears stream down his face. How could he forget? Oh, God, how did he forget? He had forgotten his friends, his family. Suddenly the prospect of being a different person seemed silly. He was still Jeremy, he was still the Dual King, the rookie mage. He was still all the things he had been, except there was no barrier between them anymore.  The hands around his head fell away but he didn't move. He couldn't. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know what he was doing. The pieces of the puzzle were still arranging themselves.

"Jeremy? Are you alright?" A voice asked, and he was almost certain he had heard it somewhere before. It was a friend, he knew that much. Maybe it was Kdin, or Matt, or one of the others. He tried to get his thoughts straight, but there were so many of them and all of them were yelling at him to focus on them.

"I- I don't-" he felt his hands start to shake and his teeth chatter. It was so _cold_ and it was only getting worse. He stiffened when a burning body pressed itself on him, warming him from the inside out. He relaxed into the embrace, the memories fitting themselves together and forming a whole picture. "Matt,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “I'm sorry I forgot. I don't know how I could let myself forget."

"Shut up. It's not your fault. It's all right again, you don't have to worry anymore." They stood there for a while. He wasn't sure how long, but the others had long since left to sort out their own problems. As the world kept spinning and the sun started to rise the troubles that would soon come didn't matter then. As far as they were concerned everything was right with the world.

Oh, how wrong they were.


	9. I must've forgot, you can't trust me. I'm open a moment and close when you show it. Before you know it, I'm lost at sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait. I had a terrible case of writer's block for like a week, so have a kinda long chapter.

It was nice to be out of those chains. It was nice to get out of the damp and cramped dungeon that his tomb had been. It wasn’t like he remembered a lot of it, but there were still the echoes of years spent in the same place that kept coming back to him. There was that and James’s memories unlocking. It happened to the others, he knew. When Geoff touched the water it caused a chain reaction, unlocking his memories as well as his consorts. Unfortunately for him, though, the curse caused the memories to fragment into an echo of the original Mad King. He wasn’t a full person, though that didn’t stop him from being able to exist and at times take the place of James. It was almost like the universe was trying it’s best to make sure he never had any rest.

He glanced out the window, seeing less stars in the sky then he was used to. The night was quiet and dark, though it was so much better than the blackness that permeated every corner of his grave. It was nice to be sleeping on something soft, something warm. The blankets were a little dusty and a little scratchy but at that moment Ryan wouldn't have traded it for anything. He was sitting near the hearth, a safe distance away from everyone. He didn't trust the king, he still didn't fully trust James, and he sure as hell didn't trust himself. He doubted he would ever be free of the voices in his head. Though, to be fair, he was technically the intruder.

He saw a large lump hidden under one of the blankets. He smiled. At least Jack had someone to hold onto. Michael had Lindsay, Matt had Jeremy, and Gavin... well, he didn't really need anyone. Neither did Ray. Maybe they would find someone someday. He doubted that he ever could. He doubted he could find anyone as accepting as Caiti or as honest as Lindsay. He doubted he would ever find anyone accepting of him as he was. Oh, well. Their journey wasn't over yet. They still had so much to do. They still had to rescue Geoff, for one. Then they would figure out what to do. It didn't make much sense to make plans when they were missing members. His personal matters could wait.

He heard a shift of the blankets. Suddenly Caiti was sitting next to him, staring at him intently. He tried to avoid her eye, shifting uncomfortably. She looked like she wanted answers and she wasn’t going to let him keep them from her. "Stop starting at me. It's creepy."

She didn’t stop, and it was a while before she said anything. By then Ryan was debating whether or not to just leave. He didn’t like her staring at him. "Are you alright?"

He blinked at her, not really comprehending what she meant. Was there something wrong with him? He was fine now. It wasn’t like he was still trapped in his tomb. It wasn’t like he was scaring the shit out of the person trying to help him. He would have to apologize to Matt later. "Excuse me?"

"You're sitting away from everyone. You're not sleeping. And I'm asking you if there's something wrong."

"No, no, I'm perfectly fine." He heard James laugh bitterly at that. He resisted the urge to tell him to shut up. He just laughed louder. "I've slept long enough. As for why I'm sitting here... well, I guess it's my curse."

"What is it? I hope you don't mind me prying but I can't imagine it's anything like Jack's or even Ray's. Yours seems... harsher." He didn’t think she actually cared, but he appreciated her trying to get him to talk about it. She was trying to help him, he knew. But he didn’t really want to open up to her.

"It is. But don't worry. I'm fine." He didn't want to look at her. He heard James whisper, _Tell her what's wrong, stupid. If you're having such a hard time then talk to someone who's not you._   "Well... I may have lied. It's kind of hard to explain, but I'm not really the cursed one. It sure feels like it, though."

Caiti was silent for a while. He was beginning to think she had fallen asleep again. "Again, I don't mean to pry, but what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. We have to get Geoff, but after that I just… I don't know." _We should just leave that knight to rot. What did he ever do for us?_ He wasn't sure if it was the king talking or James. With his luck it was probably the king. He knew someone was mad, their rage boiling over. He stood up, letting the blankets drop. "I have to go."

He didn't hear how Caiti responded to that. He was already gone, walking through the ruined city. _This city used to be magnificent, amazing, a sight that people would travel the world to see. Now it's nothing. It's broken, it's ruined. What did I ever see in it?_ He tried not to let the king's words affect him, but it was getting harder. As he stumbled through the cracked cobblestone and fallen walls his vision blurred, but he kept moving. He couldn't let his friends get hurt. _Calm down. I'm not going to do anything to them. I'm just going for a walk._

As the frantic footfalls slowed and stopped a sound rang through the alleyways and broken stones. It was a whistle, a simple note ringing through the city. As the former king stood, silent once again, he heard the scuttling of spiders and creepers and monsters. He smiled and reached for a weapon.

-.-

He woke up back at the safe house, his muscles burning and bruises and cuts rapidly healing. He tried to think back to what happened, but his memories were a black void as soon as he walked out the door. He looked around the room, expecting to see something terrible, like blood on the walls or dead bodies on the floor. All that he saw was his friends going about their business as usual, talking, yelling, or actually doing something productive. He sighed in relief. He jumped when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you gonna get up? We have to plan on what to do next, you know. And we can't do that if you're just sitting here." Gavin looked like he wanted to fall asleep again. Ryan glanced out the window, seeing a freshly risen sun. He rubbed his head, wondering what had happened the night prior. _I told you_ , the king grumbled, _I just went out for a walk._ Ryan didn't believe that. "Ryan! Are you going to get up?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, Gavin. I'm coming." He got up and followed the man to where everyone else was staring at a huge map laid out on a table. He glanced over to the dragon- Kdin, he remembered- and whispered, "What are we doing?"

He looked at Ryan from head to toe and frowned. "You look different. Are you alright?" He just nodded. Kdin didn't look convinced. He wished that people would just take his word for it. He could handle it… probably. "We're planning on what to do next. Well, I guess you guys are. I don't think I'm really part of this."

"Don't be silly, of course you're part of this," Lindsay exclaimed, almost looking hurt that he would think otherwise. He felt her throw her arm around his shoulder and pull him in way too close. He tried to escape from her grasp, only to have her tighten her hold on him. "Besides, you helped get the crazy one out, just like you helped get everyone else out. I'd say you're part of the family now, if you want to be. You too, lovebirds." Matt and Jeremy blushed at that and stuttered out objections.

"Hey, Ryan, I see you're up," Ray remarked, slowly pulling him away from Lindsay's firm grasp. He glanced at the man gratefully. "Do you have anything to add to this discussion?"

"What have you planned so far?" He asked, looking over the map. There were a few places marked, like the Teeth and the Altar, and there were even a few landmarks he didn't recognize, like the Tower and the Department of Magical Authority. He knew that the world would have changed while he was locked away, but seeing it in actuality was something else altogether. _You know, I don't think they would like us if we went back,_ James commented. "They never liked us to begin with," he mumbled back.

"Well," Michael said, ignoring Ryan's barely audible reply, "So far we know we have to get Geoff, we just don't know where he is."

"Actually, I do."

Michael looked at Kdin exasperatedly. "Well then why didn't you say anything?" Kdin just shrugged. "Alright, well are you going to tell us then?"

"He's in the Altar," the dragon stated flatly. He seemed to square his shoulders, as if waiting for what would come next. "I know, I put him there myself."

There was an icy silence. Ryan heard the king laugh. "What?" Michael growled quietly. Ryan glanced under the table, seeing Michael tearing grooves into the wood. He considered going over and trying to calm him before remembering that they didn't exactly have the best history together. He probably forgave James by now, but he didn't want to chance it. Kdin flinched from the malice in Michael's voice. He seemed to steel himself to talk again.

"It was a different time, and you stole from the dragons. Did you expect me to just let you go? We wouldn't let the First King have our water and we certainly wouldn't have given it to a group of adventures. Besides, the Exile escaped that day and because of you he's in the Overworld now. I'd say we were right to punish you." He slowly lowered his shoulders, descending from the regal look he had worked up to. "But as a friend I'm sorry. I wouldn't have put you through all that if it wasn't necessary. Besides, it's better than being dead."

Michael looked to have calmed down. He sighed and put a small yellow block on the part of the map labeled the Altar. "Well we know where to go, and now it's just a matter of who should go."

"Who? I thought we were all going together." Ryan could have sworn he heard relief in the creeper's voice. _I guess he doesn't like the knight either._ Ryan shook his head. Geoff had been the one to practically save Gavin from his fate as a creeper. There was probably some other reason. He didn’t have any idea what that reason would be, though to be fair he rarely talked to Gavin. He was pretty sure the man was afraid of him, or at least James.

Michael shook his head. "There's too many people, and besides, from what Matt and Jeremy have said it would be a huge risk for any of our more magical members to go to the mainland." He glanced at the aforementioned couple. "Do either of you care to elaborate?"

Matt stepped forward. Ryan noticed that he looked downright human. It wasn’t too much of a shock. He knew how curses that created multiple forms worked. He probably felt most comfortable as a human. "Well, after the Dragon War ended and the kingdom was left short two rulers they quickly appointed the kings' court as a government body, a tradition that has taken the place of royalty. The court decided, since most of humanity's hardships had been cause by magic and its users, to get rid of it entirely. A little known fact about magic, though, is that monsters can't exist in a land without it, and that was what they sought to do. They wanted to make the kingdom a safer place, and they were willing to give up centuries old magic to do so. They banned all practice of it, they locked away any artifact seeped with it, and they chose to forget the past, lest they fall back to how they had been, scared to fall asleep without a candle burning steadily. Slowly the magic drained from the mainland, though still existing in a few pockets, like the Somnolent Forest and Patch.

"After that there was a huge influx in engineering breakthroughs and technology. It was an attempt by the people to get back to the place they had been, this time without magic to help them. What they used in place of light charms, they invented electricity and light bulbs. In place of long distance communication spells they invented headsets that would do the same. People rapidly adapted to a life without magic, and since no monsters turned up when the lights went off at night they were content to forget about it. There are, though, a few groups that still try to practice magic. It is diluted and weak, but it's still magic. If ever they become too powerful or too active, the DMA, Department of Magical Authority, takes care of it. If any of you step onto the mainland with the amount of magic you have now it's only a matter of time before something bad happens."

Jeremy picked up where Matt fell silent. "If any of you were to be able to make it to the mainland practically undetected would be Lindsay, Michael or Ray."

"You mean Lindsay and Ray," Michael said. "I don't... exactly trust myself. Especially not around crowds of people."

-.-

When they finally broke through the shallow ring of trees around the outpost it was already getting dark. It seemed to him that the days were unbelievably short and the nights unbearably long. It wasn't like it was that bad, though. The monsters tended to stay close together in large groups rather than try to attack a group of adventurers. He felt Jeremy bump into him, muttering a small "Sorry." Ahead of them Caiti walked, talking with Lindsay who had switched out her old clothes for Caiti's spare ones. She was fingering a necklace that Ryan had given her. He explained that when they were in the mainland it would help dampen their magic and it would trap the members who had other forms in the one they chose for as long as they wore it. The downside was that it prevented any type of magic use. The upside was it only lasted as long as it was worn. He had made one for Matt and Jeremy as well.

"Hey, Matt, I just realized something." Jeremy mumbled, walking slowly, as if he didn't want to get any closer to the outpost. "The lives we built, the people we met, our goals... well, they don't really matter anymore, do they? I wanted to learn how to be a mage, how to wield magic like the old kings. But I was one of them, and I know how magic works and how to use it. I know the history of the kingdom, I know how it ended up and how it ended up that way, and my friends seem... faraway. I knew people; I talked to them every day about my desires and hopes for the future. They were my whole world. Now... now it feels like they don't matter."

Matt shrugged. He didn't miss being Matt the historian. It was a boring and dismal life. Being what he was now was more fun, it was exciting, and he was more than willing to forget about the life he built when he didn't remember. He never really made any friends anyway. "Make them matter. If it means so much to you then you can keep living the life you built."

"But that would mean leaving you, leaving Kdin, leaving everyone that stood by me even when I didn't know them. I don't know. I don't want to choose."

Matt was about to reply when a weight fell on his shoulder and he stumbled and almost fell. His wings shot out, steadying him. Jeremy danced out of the way, letting out a yell of surprise. A bird chirped at him, as if laughing, and he looked back at what was on his shoulder. He blinked in surprise when he saw a bright red, orange, and yellow bird staring back at him. It chirped at him in a way that seemed like it was talking. "Uh... hi?" He reached out a hand and stroked the bird.

"Put your wings away," Caiti shouted back at him. "And Lindsay, stop playing. We're almost at the outpost." Matt obliged, and the bird flew over to Jeremy.

"Hey, are you Lindsay?" The bird bobbed its head, laughing at them again.

As they entered the outpost he was shocked at how little it had changed. He wasn't sure why he was surprised. Maybe it was because he had changed so much. It was weird to see the outpost again, with its grey buildings and the few boats at the dock. It was almost wrong, to see it again. It hadn’t changed, not one bit, and for a moment everything that had happened flashed through his mind. Caiti told them to wait outside the inn while she informed the ship’s crew that they were back and ready to leave whenever they were. It didn't take long and soon Caiti was walking back out followed by Griffon and the rest of the crew. Matt felt Lindsay bite his ear, pulling it. He stumbled the way she was pulling him, behind the building and out of sight. Lindsay hopped off his shoulder and her whole body seemed to catch on fire before growing and slowly dissipating into a human.

"Why didn't you tell my Griffon would be here?" She was practically jumping up and down, a huge smile breaking her face in two.

Matt blinked in surprise. "Wait, you know Griffon?"

Lindsay nodded her head vigorously. "Of course I know her. She was the First Queen. She and the First King made this kingdom what it is today. Well, maybe not. They definitely contributed to it a lot, though." Suddenly the smile slipped from her face and her shoulders slumped. It was such an abrupt change in energy that Matt wasn't sure how to react. "I... I was the last consort before the First King died. I had to carry the weight of a kingdom on my shoulders for years while Geoff slowly died, locked behind thick doors so no one would know about what happened. Griffon... she tried her best to help me, but Geoff was her priority. She spent hours with him, and even more hours locked away in the library, trying to find a cure."

Matt nodded, knowing the story well. Though the Phoenix Queen was generally ignored, the First King's last years were not. The culprit was never specified, and the means weren't either, but there were always rumors. Some said the king had been poisoned by his cooks, others said by his wife. The history books just said he was poisoned. The First King, one of the last Builders, slowly died from a rare poison made to kill anything, even immortals. Even Builders. The First Queen had sought out a way to help her husband, but there was no hope for him. The poison would always kill, though she did find a way to counteract it. She could make sure he was reborn eventually, like his consorts. When the First King finally died the queen disappeared with the promise to wait for her beloved. The Phoenix Queen was left alone to tend to the kingdom until she died just as she had ruled, young and alone. The next king was chosen from the list of possible consorts.

"I want to talk to her." Matt was snapped out of his thoughts. "I want to see her again. I want to let her know that I'm alive, that I'm alright now." Matt wasn't sure that Lindsay's definition of alright was the same as his, but he nodded anyways.

"Hang on, Lindsay. I'll get her." He walked back to the group, seeing Caiti explain to the captain what had happened, albeit with a few details cut out, specifically of the supposedly dead kings living on the island. Griffon smiled when she saw him.

"Ready to join the conversation, then?" Matt shuffled a bit before working up the courage to talk to the queen he had known from afar for most of his childhood. It was hard to take her down from the pedestal he and all the other commoners had set her on but he would have to.

"Actually, could you come with me for a moment?" She looked at him, confused. She seemed to regret it, but she nodded. Matt led her to where he left Lindsay. He looked around a bit before hearing the sound of someone landing on the ground. He turned and saw Lindsay practically smothering Griffon.

The woman looked both surprised and confused. She slowly pulled Lindsay off of her, trying to see who it was that had hugged her. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was. "Lindsay?" she whispered, her voice breaking. The aforementioned girl smiled and nodded.

"Hi, Griffon. It's nice to see you again."

"But how...? How do you... remember? How are you here?" She seemed to be at a loss for words.

"I'll explain it all to you, but first we have to save your husband." Griffon's eyes widened and she looked ecstatic.

"You know where he is? I... I'd given up hope of finding him again, but..."

The conversation stopped when Jeremy shouted for them to "Get going, the ship's leaving in a few minutes."


	10. That's what we do it for, to reserve a space in history. It's just part of the human race.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's this?? Have I returned to this insane fic?? yeah, if anyone actually reads it. Hopefully I'll update every other week since I'm working on like two other fics currently. As always, enjoy the chapter, and if you like it feel free to comment.

When the boat docked he took a deep breath. He was finally there, finally at the mainland, and this time he wasn't a mindless idiot whose only goal was breaking the law. This time he had a real goal and a real past, not some fake life that some kind of curse thrust him into. Wait… had they ever found out _why_ they couldn’t remember? Jeremy shook his head. Matt probably knew, he just wasn’t telling. Cryptic bastard. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bracelet Ryan had given him. He stared at it for a minute, knowing all too well what it was going to do. It was going to make him normal again. With a deep breath he put the suppressor on with shaking hands. He seemed to always be afraid of change. When the bracelet was firmly around his wrist its runes seemed to suck in all light. The feeling was shared by Jeremy as he slowly felt the world darken around him. There was no more magic in the air, there was no more mystical energy living inside of him. It felt terrible. The only thing that stayed was his curse, and it was only made worse by the lack of magic to dampen it. He shivered and went to find Matt. He needed him to make him feel warm again.

Jeremy found his friend staring at the dock. There wasn't a lot of people out but Matt still looked like he was searching for someone. He slid next to Matt, leaning on the railings and pressing his cold body into his friend's warm one. He noticed that any trace of his curse was gone. He looked human. He didn't even have the weird dragon eyes anymore. He must have put his suppressor on too. "What're you looking at?"

"I'm not looking at anything." Jeremy knew he was lying, or at least keeping information from him, so he continued to stare at him. He finally gave in and sighed. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"About how much the world has changed. I don't know how I feel about it. When I didn't remember it seemed fine. Well, besides the general ignorance of history. Now it just seems terribly broken. It's stripped clean of magic, there's nothing there but what you see. It's boring, truthfully. Even when monsters were a serious threat the magic more than made up for it. You could perform miracles, talk to someone thousands of miles away, make light where none existed. Now you can't do anything but what technology allows you to." He sighed, resting his chin in his hands.

"That's what King Matt thinks," Jeremy said, a smile creeping its way across his face. "I want to know what historian Matt thinks about it."

He looked at him like he had lost his mind. Jeremy was well aware of the difference between who he became as a mortal and who he was as an immortal. He wasn't too sure if Matt was. "I guess... I guess he thinks its fine. Sure, magic is gone, but the thrill of life isn't. You can still make light when there is none, you can still do a lot of things that magic could do. I guess the big difference is we know how it works. We had no idea where magic came from, what it was. All we knew was how to use it." He straightened his back a bit, staring out at the dock. "I guess it's not so bad. Things change. I know that better than anyone."

He heard something behind him, so he turned around. What he saw made him smile. Lindsay was dressed in normal clothes. It was strange seeing her in anything but the feathered mantle and haltered dress she usually wore, but she didn't look bad. She still didn't quite look normal, but then again, Jeremy didn't either. He was pale and freezing and it wasn't hard to see. The biggest difference for Lindsay, though, was that her mannerisms had changed. She looked more focused, more serious. It seemed that while Jeremy’s curse was increased, hers was dampened. "Are we going or not? We don't exactly have an eternity."

"Technically we do," Jeremy joked. It only earned him a glare from Lindsay and a small smile from Matt. Kdin came stumbling out of the lower cabins that he had snuck into when the boat was preparing to leave. Out of all of them he looked the same. He had learned how to mask and suppress his magic unlike everyone else (sans Griffon) because he had lived in the mainland for a while. It was that or get arrested and possibly experimented on. Magic and history were both gone, it wasn’t like common people saw a dragon every day. "Hey, Kdin, you ready to go?"

He nodded, walking up to them. Everyone had some form of bag around their shoulders, some bigger than others. They looked like a group of tourists that had just landed from a long flight. Griffon had explained that she didn't want to come, even when it was a mission to rescue her husband. She refused to explain why, but Jeremy guessed it had something to do with their being separated for so long. She probably wanted to wait to face him when he was thinking coherently and not dealing with different lives all at once. It didn’t really matter to him what the reason was. It was her problem. Since Griffon wasn’t coming that meant that they could leave. They could step onto the mainland again, after what felt like years. In reality it had only been about a week. Jeremy took a deep breath and slowly walked off the ship.

The ground was wet under his feet. The people walking past him didn't spare him a second glance. They had their own lives and their own worries; they didn't care about a stranger on the docks. The buildings speared into the sky, higher than even the tower back at the city, or at least it seemed that way. It was all metal and glass, though the stone bases and old monuments were hidden between. There were statues and roads and cars and people living their lives. It was weird to see again, after the time spent on Patch. He heard everyone follow him, some more hesitant than others. Lindsay gasped at the tall buildings and rushing traffic. Jeremy had to remind himself that this was her first time seeing anything even remotely similar.

“So this is what happened to the kingdom?” she asked rhetorically, staring at everything in wonder. She tried to watch every person, tried to figure out everything about the kingdom she had once ruled in a second.

“Lindsay, you don’t have to stare at everyone. It’s kind of creepy, actually.” Kdin commented, and was promptly ignored by Lindsay, who was starting to get weird looks for her staring.

“Come on guys,” Jeremy said, ignoring everyone’s bickering, “We’ve got a bus to catch. I don’t want to wait in this weather for longer than I have to.”

He started walking, winding through the crates and crowds, slowly but surely making his way to the nearest bus stop. When they got there they had to wait a while until their chosen mode of transportation actually showed up. When it did they all piled in, Jeremy making sure they had paid. Thanks to Ryan’s suppressors no one spared them a second glance. Once they were seated in the bus and heading to their chosen destination (they had decided to stop at Jeremy's apartment, since it was the closest to the Altar) it was obviously only a matter of time before something horrible happened.

Thankfully it didn't happen until they had gotten off the bus. Jeremy was glad, too. The entire ride consisted of Lindsay pointing at something and demanding that Kdin explain what it was and how it worked. That part was done, and now they just had to make it to his apartment. They were in a part of the city that Jeremy was more than familiar with. He had lived there for years, and he knew the underground parts of it almost as well as he knew his own home. There were countless alleys and empty warehouses that served as a base of operations to the small gatherings of mages that liked to think that they were the most powerful thing in the kingdom. Jeremy, of course, had been one of them. That was over now, though. As they got closer to the building he recognized as his apartment complex he heard a scrape behind them and turned around, only to see that he was alone. "Matt?" He called out cautiously. “Kdin? Lindsay?” There was only one thing that could have done that, and it wasn't a normal mugger on the streets. Whoever they were they were mages, and not the good kind.

What felt like a knife was pressed to his throat. "If you want to see your friends again you'll come with me." A voice hissed in his ear. The bracelet on his wrist suddenly felt unbelievably heavy. At least now he knew what was going on. There were very few magic users in the kingdom but there was enough to separate them into two very distinct categories. Ones that cared about non magic users and ones that did not. The person who was holding a knife to his throat was probably one of the latter. He felt himself get pushed from behind, the mage leading him to what Jeremy assumed was his hideout. More likely than not there was probably somewhere around seven of the mages holed away in the building.

"Look, I don't want to sound desperate but if you don't want something really _really_ bad to happen to you then you need to let me go." Obviously, the man didn't believe him, for Jeremy felt a hard blow to the back of his head and suddenly there was nothing but darkness. Oh, well, at least he warned them. What happened next was not his fault, it was theirs. Hopefully nothing _too_ bad happened.

-.-

Jack had lived for a very long time. Not all at once, but just enough for him to have witnessed castles rising and kingdoms being built. He remembered Geoff, the First King, his friend, best of all. It felt like an eternity since he had last seen his friend, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he returned home, where he belonged. Jack sighed when he heard a crash from outside. It was probably Gavin again. He didn't seem to understand the concept of magic very well, even when he was almost as competent as everyone else. Too bad Jack was the only one among them that specialized in construction magic. He was the main reason the city was being cleaned up so quickly.

Their plan had been to tear down the old buildings and use the material from them to make houses, really more like small castles, for all of them. Really, none of them regretted destroying the old buildings. They were broken and useless anyways, and the only people to miss them were the ghosts that had once inhabited the city. They had decided to keep Geoff's the same, the giant tower still spearing into the sky. Next to it Ray had made a humble home, though when he looked at what everyone else was building his face quickly turned into a frown (Jack still wasn’t sure why he had declined to go with the others). Gavin had covered his house with art, not unlike his tomb. Honestly, his tomb was probably where he got the art. Michael had looked at what Jack was making and started to copy it. Out of all of them, he was the worst at construction. Ryan didn't even bother to make one. He just took up residence in the old supply house next to Geoff's tower. Something was up with him, and most of them had noticed.

Jack found himself just outside of Ryan's open door and knocked on it. He flinched when the eyes that looked back at him weren't blue. Really, he should have gotten used to it by now, but he still hadn’t. He still reacted more or less the same as the day they sat under that tree and Ryan poured his heart out to them. "Uh..." Jack mumbled pathetically, "Can I talk to Ryan?"

The black eyes stared at him for a moment before they flickered back to a familiar blue. He blinked and squinted at Jack, like he had just woken up. "Oh, hi. Did you need something?" He asked, and Jack didn't like the tone. He seemed distracted, tired. He shook his head. Ryan looked confused. "Then why'd you come in here?"

"Because you're acting weird, Ryan, and none of us like it." His eyes just hardened, and for a second Jack could have sworn they were a bright red. He continued on, even if Ryan seemed to be on edge. “You know you can talk to us, right? You don’t have to be all secretive about everything you do.”

Ryan’s eyes found the floor. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… there’s been something bothering me lately.” Jack looked at him sternly. “It’s not the king or anything,” he rushed to assure the man, “It’s probably nothing. It’s just… maybe we should have thought about this Geoff thing a little bit more.”

“What do you mean?” Was he suggesting they shouldn’t have sent anyone out to rescue him?

“I mean think about it. Magic is like energy, it doesn’t just go away.” Jack’s eyes widened, slowly piecing together what Ryan was talking about. “The amount of magic needed to hold us was phenomenal; imagine how much must have been required to hold a _Builder._ ”

“ _Oh,”_ Jack whispered in the way someone might have said _shit._

“It’s just a guess, I wouldn’t get too worried about it,” Ryan said, trying as hard as he could to not make this Jack’s problem. Too bad for him, it was already Jack’s problem. Too bad they had no way to get off the island. “The worst thing that’ll probably happen is the Altar spawning monsters again… yeah, the worst thing.” He trailed off, going back to whatever he was doing before. Jack left to talk to the lads about what Ryan had said.

The next few days passed with no problems, except for Michael yelling at Ryan about keeping secrets and telling him to trust them and Ray spending more and more time in Ryan’s house. Gavin seemed to almost always be off with Michael scouting the island. Everyone had seemed to settle into their respective homes, working on their own personal projects or collecting resources for the entire city. Caiti visited a lot, and Jack was grateful for her company. Ryan became more distant, though whenever Michael dragged him out of his house he did his best to be happy and animated, but besides that everyone was content to wait for Matt and Jeremy to return. Well, a little content. They really hoped Ryan was wrong with his theory.

-.-

He walked slowly and breathed heavily. He wasn't used to so much physical activity. He was an artist, god dammit. Well, he was kind of an artist. He specialized in making magical paintings, portraits, designs, spells, anything. He was the one to call when you needed a particular rune for a spell or just a fancy moving picture. He was well known throughout the magical community, and vaguely known through the non-magical one. Unfortunately he had gotten too big for the authorities, because he came home one day to find his home warded off and crawling with police. His friends had offered him a place to stay and an escape plan. He could go to Patch, where the magic was so thick there was no hope for anyone to find him, or he could stay and get captured by the DMA and probably never see the light of day again. Obviously he chose the former of the two. They had dropped him off in a section of the island that, they assured him, contained an outpost. He had yet to find anything.

He heard a hissing somewhere in the trees and quickened his pace. He knew very well that there were monsters hiding on the island. Honestly, he had expected to be attacked already. He had seen a spider the size of a large dog through the trees, but other than that, nothing. The thought of the spider only made him walk faster. Apparently, whatever was making the noise didn't like that because suddenly an arrow had buried itself in the ground right in front of him. Was it an undead archer or something? He felt his heart threaten to burst out of his chest. A figure swung itself down from an overhanging branch. Its face was obscured by a heavy green hood, though its hands didn't look quite human. It hissed something, and Jon gulped. Was this what a creeper looked like? It didn’t really matter, either way he was about to die at the hands of some monster and there was nothing he could do about it. He heard a crashing through the leaves, and the first thing he thought was _oh, great, reinforcements._

"Hey, Gav, what's going on- who the fuck are you?" Another figure, this one more plainly a man, came into view. He looked intimidating, not just for the sword slung across his back or the scars littering his face, but for the claws that seemed to be a part of his hand. Jon legitimately felt like he was going to pass out. He stumbled back a bit, though the bag across his back only made him stumble. "Wow, calm down dude, we're not gonna hurt you. Are we, Gavin?" The other figure hissed something that sounded like a grudging yes. "Now, I'm Michael," he began slowly, "Who are you?"

He pulled himself together just enough to say, "Jon," before he really did faint.


	11. And I’m trying to find my peace of mind, behind these two white highway lines. When the city goes silent the ringing in my ears gets violent.

He woke up in a small room that was nearly devoid of light. What light there was trickled in from the cracks of the door. He couldn't see very well in the dark, especially with his magic being blocked, but he was almost certain he was in some kind of study. The dark shapes in the room gave that away. He quickly took stock of himself, noting that his baggage was gone and sighing in relief when he felt the necklace still hanging heavy around his neck. He knew as well as anyone that taking it off was not in his best interest. He heard footsteps outside of the door, and whispering. He strained his ears to try to hear what was being said.

"Has he woken up yet?" A distinctly female voice asked. Matt knew she was talking about him.

"Dunno. Haven't checked." A male voice said. He heard the door creek open, light quickly spilling into the room. Matt snapped his eyes shut, turning his face away from the sudden brightness. "Yep, he's awake."

"Good." Said the female voice, and the light was quickly flipped on. Matt squinted against the light, trying to get used to it. When he did he saw a woman with fiery red hair not unlike Lindsay's staring at him. She was smiling, though Matt could see that it didn't reach her eyes. He couldn't feel any magic from her, but that didn't bother him so much because he hadn't been able to sense anything for a long time. Even so it was obvious she was a magic user, no matter how weak. "Hello," she said sweetly.

"Um... hi?" Matt tried, not really sure how to respond. He had never had an encounter with a magic user when he didn't remember, and now he was intensely regretting it. Introductions seemed a good place to start. "I'm Matt."

"Yes, I know who you are. You're that historian." Matt tried to hide his shock. He wasn't aware that people knew who he was. "Oh, don't look so stunned. You had your writing materials in your bag." She leaned forward, a strange look in her eyes. "Now, tell me, why is it that you're wearing that necklace?"

"Uh... I... it's just a piece of jewelry. There's nothing special about it."

"Then take it off."

"No," he replied, perhaps a bit too quickly. This wasn't good. If she knew what it did she probably thought that he was just wearing it because he bought it at some pawn shop or something. He doubted she even considered the fact that he was wearing it to block magic, as was its intended purpose. 

"Why?" She asked. "It's just a piece of jewelry, right?"

"Uh- I... yeah, it is, but-"

"I'm not a fool, Mr. Bragg. I know what that necklace is. Why you would choose to wear it is beyond me, but I know one thing. I. Want. It." Matt shook his head, stumbling away from the woman that was quickly walking towards him. "That wasn't a request," she snapped, reaching out and tearing the necklace from Matt's neck.

Immediately he felt his magic lash out, thankful to be free again. He felt his skin grow red hot, and his wings threaten to come out. He tried, uselessly, to keep his magic contained, but it didn't want to be restrained any longer. The woman was thrown back, and the light seemed to shatter, plunging the room into darkness again. Suddenly he could sense the magic that covered every inch of the building, he could see the people near the room, and he knew his friends were there too. He heard pounding footsteps and suddenly he was faced with a group of magic users. He couldn't tell how many, it was too hard to focus while still maintaining his human form. It didn't want to stay, but he had to make it.

The woman from before was clutching the necklace to her chest, her eyes wide and her mouth threatening to hang open. She tried to hide her surprise, but it wasn't working. She had not expected the man to have that much magic in him. It was unreal. Matt heard her shout something at the mages. He sighed in relief when he felt a power dampening spell placed on him. At least now he could focus. The woman was staring at him. He decided to speak first, a smile pushing its way onto his face. "You shouldn't have done that." He felt his teeth grow longer, his eyes change, and his nails sharpen. He knew it was only a matter of time before he had to change form.

"What are you?" She asked. Matt recognized that tone. It was the tone of someone who wanted to learn, to know about the world around them, to understand what she was seeing. He could give her that much.

He wasn't sure how to answer that question, truthfully. "I'm Matt." He opened his hands, spreading then to gesture to his whole body. "I'm what you see," he said, feeling his wings finally burst out and his horns curl over his head, "But I'm so much more. I've lived since before the First King died, I've been cursed and killed and suffered through centuries of hardships, and I would really appreciate it if you could give me my friends back."

He could feel everyone's eyes on him more then he could see them. He was focused on the woman, for he could see her weighing her options. He knew what she was going to say before she said it. "No."

He pushed past every precaution that had been placed, tearing the necklace from her hands. "If you won't give them back to me I can just get them myself." He heard someone laugh from the door. He glanced behind the woman and sighed with relief. "Jeremy, thank god."

"I didn't know you cared so much about me, Matt. I also didn't know that you could look that terrifying." He almost fell over when a red bunch of feathers crashed into him. "Oh, and Lindsay's here too. I don't think they got Kdin, though."

"Matt, Matt, Matt, guess what?" The bundle of feathers asked, back to her old self. "A mean guy took my necklace, so I got it back." She held up the aforementioned piece of jewelry up triumphantly. "But I don't think he'll be waking up anytime soon."

He smiled, waving a hand to fix the lights. The shadows were quickly chased away and it almost seemed like they were back at Patch. But they weren't, and they had to get out of... wherever they were before their magic became too obvious. "Where's the exit?" He asked the woman from before coldly.

She seemed to have recovered from her shock and stood there, silent. Matt would have said she was trying to keep the information from them but he knew what she was doing. She was trying to get a feel for their magic, trying to see how wise crossing them would be. He shook his head at her, but either she didn't notice or she chose to ignore it. At that moment two things decided to happen at once, though they were completely independent of each other. A banging on the door came from somewhere in the building, causing the woman to freeze and her face to go pale. Then Kdin appeared in a puff of purple smoke and the sound of shattering glass.

"Time to go," he said, and teleported them all out of the building. Matt had to take a moment to recover from the sudden and unexpected transportation. He felt Kdin quickly tie the necklace around his neck again and suddenly he was a human again with no magic. He repeated the action with Lindsay and Jeremy and took a deep breath. "That was fucking close. You guys are lucky you have me," he said, giving them a toothy grin. 

Jeremy just punched him playfully in the shoulder. "Yeah, but I could have done that faster. And with one less ender eye." The tension that had been building up was instantly dissipated.

A look of realization suddenly crossed Kdin's face. "Oh shit, hang on." He disappear, only to reappear moments later and throw everyone's bags at Matt. 

The sound of sirens reached their ears. Matt stiffened, dropping everything that he had managed to catch. “We should have gotten out faster,” he whispered, seeing uniformed DMA members dragging out the mages, restraining them in any way that was necessary. He felt someone lay a hand on his shoulder.

“It couldn’t have been helped. You tried your best to get them to let us go. It’s their fault that they didn’t listen.” Jeremy said, trying to reassure him. He just smiled at the gesture, knowing full well that it was his fault. If he had been a little quicker maybe they could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble. If he just hadn’t gone to Patch in the first place none of this would have happened.  The woman from before was marched out, and Matt stared when she noticed him. He had a feeling that this wasn’t the last time they would see each other.

-.-

When he woke up he was most certainly not in any place he recognized. For a moment, staring at the ceiling, he almost thought he was back home. But no, he remembered what happened... however long ago. He remembered the bear and the creeper, he remembered fainting (Jon groaned when he remembered this), and he knew that he was most likely wherever the two had taken him, for he was obviously not in a forest anymore. He sat up, feeling a blanket falling off him. He was in a bed, in a small room that had a few beams of sunlight streaming through the door. He got up carefully, making sure that he still had all his clothes on (he didn't know what kind of people these were, or if they were people at all). He noticed his bag sitting slightly emptier near the bed and knew without a doubt that his things had been looked through and manhandled. He jumped when he heard a snore and noticed someone asleep with their head resting among a pile of papers on a desk. A few papers he noticed were his drawings and sketches. This man looked regular enough, not like the others, so he decided it wouldn't be too bad to wake him up.

He went over and shook the man's shoulder, immediately causing him to jerk upwards and to stare at him with bright red eyes. Jon gulped, suddenly regretting his decision to wake the man. Suddenly Jon realized he had not been doing anything. He realized that, for the most part, he hadn't been _thinking_ anything either. It was as if his entire will was being leeched out of him slowly, and he couldn't find it in himself to care. The only thing that existed in his world was the deep pools of red that kept staring at him, into his mind, tearing away any thought of escape. "Now," the man said quietly, "Who might you be, little artist?"

"Jon," he said, though the word meant nothing to him. He only said it because the eyes told him to, he only knew what the eyes let him know.

"Well what are you doing here, Jon?" He felt the spell drive deeper into his mind, bringing words to his mouth that he probably wouldn't have told a complete stranger. But, since the exact nature of the king's spell was to get people to do things they would not normally do, he felt them spill out of his mouth all the same.

"I was kicked out of my home, the authorities found out about my magic. I couldn't stay, so I came to Patch to escape." He gasped suddenly as the spell broke, and he was left staring at a very confused man who very plainly had _blue_ eyes, not red. Jon shook his head violently, not quite sure what had happened. He felt strong magic in the air, but he didn't know what it was from. Somewhere deep in his mind, though he didn't know it, a worm had found its way into him, waiting and listening. "Uh..." he said awkwardly.

Suddenly the man blinked in realization. "Oh! You're awake!" He scrambled to stand up and shook Jon's hand, though he had never offered it. "It's so good to see you up. Apparently you got quite the scare from Michael and Gavin but you should be fine. Oh, you have no idea how good it is to see a new face. I'm Ryan by the way, and you're probably wondering where you are."

Jon looked at the excited man curiously. He was practically drenched in magic, and most of it was far from the good kind. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on the man, but the worm in his mind quickly stole it away. "Uh... I'm Jon... Where exactly... am I?"

"You're in Achievement City!" At Jon's panicked look he shook his head. "No, not _that_ Achievement City. You're in the original, the OG. You don't have to be afraid about people coming to take you away for your magic. If that was true this whole island would be behind bars."

"The... original? But isn't it, like, in ruins or something?" Ryan nodded.

"It _was_ before we got here. Well, before we woke up. We've been here for a _very_ long time."

"Alright..." Jon trailed off, looking behind Ryan to the door. "Can I... leave?"

Ryan seemed to deflate at that question. He nodded again, turning to the door. His hand rested on the doorknob before clenching and jerking violently. Jon took a step back from the man, not entirely sure what was happening but certain that it wasn't anything good. "No, no, not now," he heard Ryan mutter. He suddenly straightened up, and swung the door open, turning back to stare at him with hard black eyes. "If you hurt anyone here, if you so much as _think_ of betraying the people here I _will_ know, and I _will_ find you." Jon gulped, not sure how to respond to that. Something in his head told him he wasn't lying, either. He had no idea what kind of magic the man had at his disposal.

"What happened to the hospitality, Ryan?" He asked shakily.

"My name isn't Ryan," the man said, and Jon was confused.

"But you said-"

"No, _I_ didn't say anything." Jon just stared. He literally had no idea what was going on. He had a feeling that he had stumbled into something way bigger then running from the authorities.

"Fucking hell, Ryan, you're just confusing him," someone said in the doorway. Jon glanced past the figure that was blocking the door to see a man with dark hair and dark eyes staring at him. There seemed to be a lot of staring. He looked normal enough, though, and that was a huge relief to Jon. He pushed past Ryan and Jon noticed that his eyes were blue again. "I'm Ray, by the way. You're probably really confused, and that's fine. But I want you to remember a few things while you're here: don't fucking trust Ryan if his eyes are any color other than blue, if Michael starts growling, run, if Gavin's gloves burn off, run, if Jack starts randomly growing plants everywhere, run." His serious expression gave way to a smile. "I hope you're not gonna pass out again. I don't want to leave you alone with Ryan again." He started walking out again, saying, "Well come on, then. I'll give you a tour of the place."

"O-oh," Jon stuttered out. Most of the people seemed to have two very apparent sides to them and they could switch between the two seamlessly. It would take some time to get used to. He looked around at his surroundings, seeing a collection of buildings clustered around what looked like a broken city square. "I... I expected something bigger..." he mumbled to himself.

"It _was_ bigger, but there wasn't really a need for a city full of broken buildings when there are only about five people living here." Ray said, leading him past a huge tower that seemed to disappear through the clouds. He stopped near a queer cobblestone building and knocked on the door. "Hey! Gavin! Get your ass out here, he woke up!" Jon heard the sound of pounding feet (and a few shatters and crashes) before the door was pulled open. He recognized the man vaguely from before, but this time there wasn't a good to obscure his face. He had messy wheat colored hair, and his face was discolored in patches by shades of green and white. His eyes seemed to have sunk into his face, though that was probably because of the black marks all around them. Two green irises seemed to float in black eyes. Jon almost jumped when hissing came out of his mouth instead of words.

"W-what?" He said, for he felt like the hisses had been directed at him.

"He said it’s about time you woke up," Ray supplied from the side. "And some other things that I'm not going to repeat."

The man stuck out his hand, and Jon hesitantly took it. He yelped and jumped back when his hand was almost burned on contact. Gavin started laughing. Jon frowned deeply, rubbing his hand. "Can we go somewhere else?" He whispered to Ray.

"Sure. Bye, Gavin," they started walking away. Jon heard the door of the house slam shut.

"Why does he look like that?" Jon asked Ray once they were a safe distance away.

"It's cuz he's a mutant." At Jon's questioning look he elaborated. "I doubt they have them on the mainland anymore. Actually, I know they don't. But a mutant is a cross between a monster and a human. No one really knows where they came from but they existed, and that's all anyone ever really knew."

"But why does he sound like that?" He asked, vaguely aware of how mutants worked. He knew enough to know that Gavin speaking like that was unnatural.

Ray seemed to consider his next words. "Because he's cursed," he finally settled on saying. Jon took a step back in surprise. "All of us are cursed, actually. Sometimes it's easier to see, like with Gavin, and sometimes it's almost impossible to tell, like with me."

Jon's mind was swirling with a million questions. "How'd you get cursed? What's your curse? Are Ryan's weird eyes part of his curse? What about the others you mentioned before? Are they cursed too?" It all came spilling out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"We're all cursed for more or less the same reason. We all have something that we shouldn't have, and that's all I'm saying on the matter. My curse is being unable to inhabit a world without a vessel." Jon looked at him, startled. "No, I'm not possessing someone. This is actually my body, though technically it's dead. I can't feel, I can't smell, I can’t taste, I can't do anything unless my body is nearby. I'm not going to go around possessing people because it's complicated and my curse doesn't let me stay me if I'm inside someone else, if that makes sense." Jon nodded, though it really didn't understand. "Yes, Ryan's eyes are part of his curse. I'm not going into it, but there are at least two different people in that head of his. The nice one is Ryan; the one that probably scared the hell out of you is James. Yes, everyone you will meet has a curse."

They came to another house, this one a little more lopsided and poorly constructed then the others. Again, Ray knocked, and again, Jon heard footsteps. When the door swung open he saw a man that didn't really look like a man. It was hard to explain, but there was something distinctly animalistic about him. "Oh, cool, you're up." He smiled, and Jon could have sworn his teeth were unusually sharp. "I'm Michael and, uh, this might not have been the best time." His hands were stuffed behind his back and a spasm of anger ran through his face.

"Are you ok, dude? Do I need to get Ryan again?" Ray asked. Jon was trying to figure out what Michael's curse was.

"No, no, I'll be fine," he assured them, though he seemed to be twitching a bit. "I- I'll be fine. I've dealt with this shit for years. I just might have to go out for a while." With that he slammed the door shut and that was that.

"Ok, I give up, what's his curse?"

Ray looked at him, trying to hide a smile. "You were trying to guess his curse through that?" Jon just nodded. "Well, Michael's curse is a little bit different than ours. His was... more deliberate. He's cursed with an extreme emotion and an animal to embody it. His emotion is anger, his animal is a bear. Sometimes he likes to... spar with Ryan to get rid of the anger. Sometimes it... doesn't work."

"Oh," Jon said, processing the new information. It seemed to him that there were a few important details left out of that story, but it wasn't his place to question it. "So who's next?"

"Jack," Ray said.

"Hello," said a voice behind them. Jon jumped, turning around to see a huge man that looked practically overgrown. He had vines hanging off his shoulders and the skin Jon could see was speckled by what looked like bark. Flowers were woven through his beard and mushrooms sprouted from his arms. "Did you need me?"

"Eh, kinda. Jack, have you met Jon yet?" The man shook his head, smiling at the newcomer. Jon blinked in surprise when the man reached his right hand to his left arm and forcibly pulled off a large piece of bark from it.

"No, I haven't. I didn't even know anyone new showed up. Is he... you know...?"

"No, he's not." Jon felt like there was a huge part of the puzzle that he was missing.

"Oh. Well, I'm off to see Caiti. It was nice to meet you, Jon." With that he left, and Jon looked at Ray. He seemed to understand what he was asking.

"Jack was a carpenter. His curse slowly transformed him into a tree. It's a slow spreading curse, and as long as Jack keeps the growth in check he'll be fine." Jon nodded. Then he realized something. Jack made five people, so...

"What now?"

Suddenly Ryan's door was kicked open and he frantically ran over to where the stunned pair was standing. "Remember what I said before? About Geoff?"

"Yeah, I do," Ray said, a worried look quickly settling on his face.

"Well I think it might be a _little_ worse then what I thought before."

"How much is a little?" Ryan hesitated. His eyes flickered to Jon, and he could have sworn they burned red for a second. It scared him, but he figured it was James, or whatever Ray had said his name was. He opened and closed his mouth again before deciding what to say.

“A lot.”

Ray crossed his arms. “And what does that mean for us?”

“It means whatever comes next probably won’t be worth rescuing Geoff.” His black eyes were worried. “It means monsters, Ray. It means we might be directly responsible for a _lot_ of people’s lives being destroyed.”


	12. So give it up, stop beating, hearts have gone cold. Had enough repeating, it's all been done before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's the moment a lot of you've probably been waiting for. Hope you're ready for the end of this fic, because it's coming soon. As always, if you like the chapter feel free to comment. Hope you enjoy!

It had been a long time coming, but they were finally there. The altar stood in front of them, slowly climbing its way into the sky. The stones were smooth and unblemished, the steps leading to the top roped off to keep wandering tourists away. The trees had encroached on the border of the Altar, the vines starting their ascent to the top of the structure. The only road that led anywhere near it was made of cracked asphalt and faded paint that had long since been forgotten. It was obvious people had decided to forget that it existed except for the rare person interested in history. It was only used by farmers that happened to pass by the Altar on their way to the fields or the closest town over. Matt hefted his bag and started walking towards where he remembered the reception area was. That seemed as good a place as any to start. Everyone trudged behind, happy that their journey was almost over. At least they hoped it was. They had stopped at Jeremy's apartment a while back. His home had been a mess of magical artifacts and loose pages from books and he was glad to leave (he had been very clear about that to Jeremy).  From there they took a bus there to the closest stop. After that they had hitchhiked as close as they could to the Altar. Now they were there and even through the suppressors they could feel the magic that coated the structure.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hey," Kdin said, "You can probably take off that necklace if you want to. There's too much magic in the air for anyone to notice a bit more."

"You sure?" He had seen what the magic could bring to anyone near them, even to themselves if they weren’t careful. He wasn’t willing to put someone else in danger because they were careless.

"I mean as long as you can keep your appearance up, sure. If you can't, like Lindsay says she can't, then I wouldn't recommend it." He glanced back at the woman, muttering, “Just between you and me, I think she’s lying.” Matt nodded, knowing that he was right. That was a worry for when she started talking. He unclipped the necklace and slowly took it off. As his magic came rushing back he let a few things leak past his precautions, like his eyes and his teeth, but for the most part he was able to keep it under control. He smiled toothily at Kdin, the way that he had taken to doing to everyone else. He just punched him in the shoulder, returning the expression.

Jeremy wandered up next to them, pressing himself into Matt's side. The only explanation given was a mumbled "It's really cold out here." Matt noticed that Jeremy's bracelet was gone. He just shook his head and smiled.

Lindsay quickened her pace and caught up to them. "So where are we going? We're at the Altar. Now what?" She was fingering her necklace. She looked nervous, though for what Matt couldn’t say.

"You know you can take that off, right? You can try to keep your form. I'm sure you can do it whenever someone's looking." Matt didn't like the look in her eyes. She bit her lip and shook her head. He _really_ didn’t like the look in her eyes now.

"No, it's not that... It's just," she paused, as if regretting what she was about to say. "I've been thinking clearly for the first time in _centuries_. I don't... I don't want to go back to how it used to be. I'm thinking for the first time, I'm me again, not some pile of feathers that's defined by a curse and nothing else."

They had stopped for a moment, digesting everything Lindsay had just said. Matt knew very well that she couldn't keep the necklace on forever. It wasn't recommend, and Ryan hadn't told them everything about them, but Matt couldn't see anything good coming out of keeping them on longer then they needed. He didn’t know everything about magical talismans and the like, but he knew prolonged exposure never ended well. He didn't feel like sugar coating the truth from her. "You can't keep it on, you know."

She just sighed. "I know. Just... wait until we're inside the Altar. I promise I'll take it off then." Kdin and Jeremy didn't look like they believed her but Matt trusted her. She would keep her word.

The walk to the reception area was short and silent. It looked like a souvenir shop from the outside and it looked more like a museum on the inside. There were displays in glass cases and poorly restored murals lining the walls. They seemed bland and inaccurate to Matt now that he remembered the people and events that they were supposed to depict. He remembered vaguely coming here before, and if he remembered correctly he had met-

"HEY!" Someone shouted from behind the reception desk. "Matt!" They all looked at the source of the voice. Yep, Matt remembered him. His messy hair still stood like he had been electrocuted and his messy hoodie didn’t look like it belonged in a museum, no matter how poorly constructed and neglected it was.

"Hi Joel. Long time no see." He waved sheepishly, knowing that he hadn't kept in touch like he had promised the man all those months ago. Apparently he barely saw anyone at the Altar and he was usually incredibly bored but the pay was more than enough to make up for it.

"Who're your friends?" He asked, shuffling through a stack of papers. "I assume you want to go up the Altar again? I've still got your information from last time so if you just pay a fee you can be on your way." He held up a single sheet of paper full of messy black ink. Yeah, Matt remembered that. Truthfully he had lied about a lot of the information he put into it but it wasn’t like he was going to check to make sure it was all accurate.

"Oh, thanks Joel," he said nervously. He wasn't sure he trusted him. There was something weird about him that he hadn't noticed before. It was a suppressed magical energy that seemed to be seeping out from whatever was blocking it. Maybe it was some extra magic from being around the Altar so long. "Uh, these are my friends, Kdin, Lindsay, and Jeremy."

Joel nodded in affirmation, looking up from the stack of papers only to frown. "Uh... is he ok?" He pointed at Jeremy, who was staring intensely at a mural depicting the years of the Dragon War. Kdin seemed incredibly nervous next to a statue of a sword marked “The End’s Vane.”

"Yeah, he's fine," Matt quickly assured Joel, quickly going over to Jeremy. He grabbed his shoulder and the man jumped. He looked a bit panicked. "What the fuck are you doing?" He whispered.

Jeremy shot a worried look at Matt. "Why couldn't we remember before?"

"W-what?" Matt stuttered, surprised by the question.

Jeremy turned to face him. "Why couldn't we remember before?"

"I don't... I don't know," Matt said, and as the words left his mouth he realized how true they were. He had no idea why they hadn't remembered. He just remembered a cave, a dragon, his friends, and a burst of light. After that it was just his life before he remembered.

"I know," Jeremy said quietly, pointing at a picture on the wall. It was a dragon, one with inky black scales and torn wings, chains clinging to its neck. Matt took a step back. He recognized that dragon, even if it had been years since he had seen it. It was the End's Exile, a dragon that had been imprisoned in the deepest and harshest dungeons of the End. The reason had been long lost, faded in time and forgotten, but everyone knew that the dragon, whoever he used to be, was responsible for years of terror and war. He had killed that dragon, he knew it. It had taken him and Jeremy a lot of time and a lot of luck, but they had done it. But... it took a life to kill a dragon and he was still- "You didn't kill the Exile," Jeremy whispered.

Matt felt the color drain from his face. He didn't want to think about it, but Jeremy was absolutely right. If he was still alive that meant that the dragon was still out there somewhere. But... if that was true, why had no one noticed it? Maybe, just maybe, the dragon had met the same fate they had. It was possible that the dragon was walking around somewhere, ignorant to what it was. Maybe it was some kind of ancient magic that had been lost to all but the people of the End, a failsafe to ensure that he lived.

"Ok, thanks. You can head up to the Altar now if you want." They both jumped at Joel's loud voice. Jeremy shot Matt a worried look and he just shook his head. It was a worry for another day. Right now they were almost done, they were almost there. They left the small building and headed towards the base of the Altar. Matt glanced around, making sure no one was watching, and let his disguise fall away.

"There's no way I'm walking to the top, so I'm just going to fly there. Kdin, you're a dragon." He had to hide a grin at the pissed off look that the man shot him.

Kdin folded his arms. "I know what you're saying and no, you can't ride me like a goddamn horse." Matt pouted at him and Jeremy started the age old chorus of "pleasepleasepleaseplease." It was easier than they expected to get him to crack. "Fine. But I haven't used my dragon form in..." he struggled to remember the last time he had ever found a reason to transform into a full dragon. He was almost positive it was back during their first major journey together. "A long time."

Matt stepped back as Kdin rubbed his hands together; letting out a minor wave of magic and, in a flash of purple sparks, a dragon was in his place. Matt blinked. It had been a long time since he'd seen Kdin as he actually was, huge with dark purple wings and ash grey scales. His eyes were the color of Ender Eyes, and he seemed to be glaring at them.

"Oh yeah," Lindsay muttered, "I forgot that you were a dragon." Kdin just blew hot air in her face and growled. Somehow, Matt understood him.

"It's not like I use this form a lot. It looks cool but it's bulky and unwieldy." Lindsay and Jeremy clambered on the dragon, trying to get comfortable before they headed up to the top of the Altar.

It was cold and misty and the air seemed to cling and clutch at their clothes. They found what Matt had seen before, on his first journey up the Altar. It was a tower, five blocks high with a base made of obsidian and four blocks of faded, old gold stacked on top of it. There was an intense feeling of magic emanating from it, and this time Matt could actually feel it. It seemed to pulse slowly, like a heartbeat of someone in a deep sleep. Before he knew what he was doing he was reaching out to it, almost laying a hand on it. Lindsay smacked it away. "No way," she yelled, startling everyone else. "I'm gonna do this, not you." She pulled off her necklace with a sharp _snap_ and pushed her hand forward, resting it against what felt like living gold. They all felt the sudden pull of the magic in the air, and though no one besides Lindsay touched it they all felt the affect. It sucked in the magic and suddenly the floor under them seemed to fall away, the unblemished stone cracking into useless pebbles.

The ground rushed up to meet them, the only thing to break their fall a tight canopy of leaves. Matt felt his wings try to catch the wind, jerking back painfully. They didn’t so much good, and he fell to the ground, bypassing the leaves. He landed through the trees more or less on his feet. He jerked his head up, hearing skittering through the trees. He saw Jeremy walk past, and almost called out to him, but within a moment the sounds were gone and the words died in his throat. This was something he was familiar with. It happened back at Ryan's grave, except this time the memories didn't seem to be feathered to one person. He heard yelling through the trees, and he wasn't sure if he was willing to follow it without being sure that it was real. He decided to look instead on where he had ended up.

The trees were rowed evenly, the tall pale trunks marching into the mist that seemed to form everywhere. The canopy reached up so high that it seemed to grow into the Altar's stone. The eyes on the birch wood stared at him, the magic pulsing through the ground like the roots of the trees. He got up and walked, hoping to find his friends and not some hopeless and lost memory. There were whispers, snippets of things drifting through the thin trunks of the trees.

"So you're still up as well?"

"Who were you before, then?"

"I've made my decision. I figured I had better chances here then holed up and safe to live a tortured life."

"If you hadn't gone through with that stupid plan of yours..."

The whispers continued and Matt listened to every one. Some he recognized and some he didn't, but for every voice he could match a face, no matter how faded they were. He found himself in a cleared out ring of trees. The mists stopped at the edge, as if scared to come any closer. The grass was wild and tangled, grasping up at the sun they would never see. In the middle of the ring was what looked like a statue. It was amazingly detailed and it seemed like the grass was trying to swallow it whole. While plants grew over it, the stone didn't show a crack. It was of a man, one he recognized only from a distance. This was the First King. This was Geoff.

The rest of the party came crashing through the trees after him. They had somehow managed to stick together, and they stopped and stared at what had become of the First King. Kdin was the first to speak. "Woah... sorry, Geoff."

Lindsay rushed forward. "G-Geoff, oh my God how do we get him out?"

Kdin rubbed his hands together. "I have to do it. Hang on." In an instant he was a dragon again. His wings seemed to smack the trees, knocking down pale leaves. The grasses grasped at his feet, trying to tie him down. He breathed in deeply and blew out, bathing the world in an eerie black and purple fire. It didn't burn anything, it didn't even feel hot, but still the stones melted for it and a huge wave of magic lashed out from the stone statue of the First King. It was so powerful that it knocked them all back, shaking the stones that made the Altar. Though they didn’t know it the magic poured out, across the continent, filling the land with magic once more. The trees creaked and groaned, bending for the return of their king. Matt's vision was quickly overtaken by black as the magic continued to course out in waves. The last thing he heard was, "Holy dicks, dude." Apparently the king wasn't as eloquent as he had once thought.

-.-

Back at the small, modern building that was hidden in the Altar's shadow, Joel was trying to clean up. There seemed to be an abundance of paper on the ground, probably from his only visitors earlier. It was past his shift and he wanted to go home for the day but he couldn’t, not when it was still a mess. He might hate his job, but he was going to do it right. Once everything was put away he finally decided to leave.

He was locking the door, knowing that no one was going to come at any point during the night that he would have to help but not trusting the locals to not try and steal the museum exhibits, as useless as they were. It was nice seeing Matt again, after all those months. His friends seemed nice enough, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew them from somewhere. It was like he had seen them before, and the more he thought about it the more it hurt. He felt a burning in his head, one that he was not unfamiliar with. He sucked in a breath, waiting for the worst of it to pass. He would have to take an aspirin later. For now he was going to leave and go home for the night. He shot a glance up at the Altar, stopping when he felt something strange emanating from it. It was like a wave of energy, dripping and washing out to the surrounding lands. Joel felt the heat in his head grow hotter as a huge wave of energy forced him to his knees. He closed his eyes tightly and gripped his head. He had no idea what was happening, he didn't know where he was, he didn't know who he was. It pulsed with every wave of energy, making voices and images he didn’t recognize run through his head.

After what seemed like an eternity had passed the pain finally receded. The Exile looked up at the Altar and a toothy grin spread itself across his face. His plan had worked after all.


	13. t takes patience and fear and despair too change. Though you swear to change, who can tell if you do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're ready for the end. Next chapter. Sorry if it seems rushed? I've just lost and gained a lot of motivation since Monday. You probably know why.

He pulled his knees closer to his chest, trying to make himself as small as possible. He didn't want to do it, he really didn't, but what choice did he have? _You don't have one,_ the king was helpful to point out. _It's either this or you're stuck with me forever._ He shook his head, not wanting to hear him right now. He had become increasingly unstable since his little red-eyes-black-eyes phase. He was supposed to have mended, healed and become a singular person again. Instead he still felt cracked and broken, with the old Mad King, the one who had actually earned the title, slowly overpowering the voice that Ryan had come to know. It was scary.

_Don't be such a baby. It's not like you have to worry about it soon, whatever happens_. He felt the king reach forward, grasping at the edges of his consciousness, urging him to lie down and let him take the wheel for a while. _It's time, he's at the port._ With a lingering feeling of regret Ryan closed his eyes, letting the king take over for a while.

The red eyes fluttered open. He had to blink to get his bearings, as the world seemed fractured and confused. His eyes turned a shade darker as he tried to force himself to be whole again. He would need as much energy as possible if he was going to go through with this. He reached out, searching for the artist that they had let leave a few days ago. They had helped him out a bit, giving him a few tips about magic and how to mask it (which wouldn't be too hard for him since he had so little of it) and afterwards he had been more than happy to leave and go home. He may have had something to do with it. Now he was back at the mainland and it was time to put his plan into action.

It had taken a lot of energy and a lot of magic, but with some concentration he should be able to teleport himself to the general area that Jon had found himself in. His old clothes would have been a bit conspicuous so he had convinced Ray to help him make some of the clothes from Jon able to fit him. He would be able to fit in just fine. He focused on the point of magic that was the artist. A blurry image swam before his eyes, one of what looked like the inside of a bus. That would do just fine. With a tug and a grunt he pushed himself through the walls keeping him from his desired locations and as almost all of his energy was drained he felt the thief take control again.

He found himself sitting on a relatively empty bus. Across from him Jon looked like he had seen a ghost. His mouth moved but no words came out. There were a few other people on the bus but they were either asleep or too preoccupied with themselves to notice the new addition. "Hi," he waved at Jon.

"Wh- how did you get here?" He sputtered, waving his hands as he talked. "Why are you here? I can feel your magic you're not trying to hide it are you _trying_ to get arrested?"

"Uh, yeah, actually. I have a plan, though. Well, kinda. Sorry if you get caught in the crossfire." The bus stopped suddenly and everyone who had previously been distracted looked up, murmurs of confusion ringing around the bus. Ryan got up slowly and walked out of the doors, willing himself to not be noticed by anyone. He walked a bit down the sidewalks and wondered how the city had changed so much. It didn't really look like the city he remembered, not even with the old statues and crumbling buildings. He shrugged. A lot could change in the years he had been gone. He didn't really want to worry about it right now. There would be time for that later. Hopefully. The more he walked the more he noticed people stop and stare, at what he wasn't positive.

_We're being followed. They found us. Just pretend you don't see them._ He could hear the smile in the king's voice. _Give them a show._

It wasn't long before he felt rough hands grab his, only to bounce off harmlessly because of a little bit of magic. He turned around and smiled at the people standing behind him, all of them with guns out and pointing at him. He gave them his most charming smile. "Can I help you?" He asked innocently.

Who appeared to be the ringleader crossed his arms. "Come quietly and we won't have to hurt you." Ryan's smile dropped and he felt the king try to take control. He shook his head slightly.

"No, if we're doing this we're doing it my way."

"What was that?" The ringleader asked dangerously. It was obvious that they didn't trust him, and if the shaking guns were any indication they had been warned that there was a possibility that he was a threat. He hoped they hadn’t given them actual guns. That would be a bit messy.

"I said ok, I'll come with you." The leader raised his eyebrow. He apparently didn't expect him to come quietly. He pulled out what looked like a pair of handcuffs.

"Put these on then." Ryan took a step back. He knew what those were. They were suppressors. He looked at the leader and quietly shook his head. He made a grab at Ryan, only to be pushed back by a wall of magic.

"No, I'll come I promise just don't make me put those on-" his pleas were cut short by what felt like a dart on the side of his neck. One of the grunt's guns was shaking, pointed at him. He felt the world tilt around him as darkness quickly clouded his vision.

-.-

The king woke up in a room, his hands handcuffed. His head hurt and it was difficult to move. He was sitting on a metal chair and the chains were hooked to a metal table. The room was bare and white and there was a mirror on one wall. There was a door too but he couldn't see past it. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and almost groaned. His eyes were black, and that meant that he would have to adhere to the atrocity called a conscience. The thief had taken to calling him James while he was in such a state and he had never found a reason to refuse the name. His real one had been lost centuries ago.

Speaking of the thief... why couldn't he hear him? It was strangely quiet in his mind but for his own thoughts. It was like the thief wasn't there anymore, though he could still vaguely feel his presence. It was probably because of the handcuffs. They were made specially to block any and all magic, and the thief being a byproduct of magic was blocked out from communicating in any way. It would be a while before it started to hurt.

The door swung open and a serious looking man stepped in. His head was clean shaven and his suit was impeccable. He looked like he meant business. He sat down on another metal chair across from him. There was silence for a while. "Did you know," he began, "That you are not part of any database in the entire kingdom?" He leaned forward. "You don't exist."

He sneered at the man. "Then how do you explain that I'm here right now?"

"I can't." He pouted at that. He wasn't going to be fun to mess with at all. "Apparently a huge source of magic appeared in the middle of the city. Do you know where it led? It led to you."

The king leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, I know what happened. I don't know who you are, though."

The man was silent for a moment. "Shannon McCormick. Why don't you return the favor?"

He shrugged. "I would if I had a name to give. People used to call me the Mad King. The thief's taken to calling me James."

Shannon's face betrayed a flicker of confusion. "The Mad King died centuries ago."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that being banished to the Nether meant I died." He felt a hot flame of anger lick up inside of him. His eyes turned red. "I'm sorry that I didn't meet your expectations. I'm sorry that I didn't _die_ like I was supposed to." He felt the chains fall off from the sheer amount of magic they were holding back. In an instant the king was gone and Ryan was blinking rapidly, trying to get his bearings. He had no idea where he was and the king was burned out so he wouldn't be much help. There was a muted sound of alarms though he didn't know what they were for. He noticed a man sitting across from him. "Oh. Hi. Who're you?"

He stared at him and Ryan could sense the confusion. Oh, so he'd already talked to the king. "I already told you. Weren't your eyes black?"

"Oh, so you met the king, then? Sorry if he did anything... cruel."

"Are you the thief?" Was the king still calling him that? Talk about holding a grudge.

"Yeah, I guess. My name's Ryan." He looked around the room, taking in its bland interior. "Where am I?"

"You're at the DMA headquarters. You can consider yourself a prisoner here if you don't cooperate."

Ryan shook his head. "No."

"No?"

"No. I'm here because I need to be. You're here because you don't know what's going to happen. You think I just came here for nothing?" The man sitting across from him shrugged. "You're going to have a lot of shit to take care of in a few minutes, and I suggest you take me to the Altar. If you don't then you're going to regret it. A lot."

The door burst open and someone shouted, "There's been some kind of magic spike at the Altar. We need all hands there now. It's spreading." The guard paused, his voice shaking. "Monsters are spawning."

Ryan stood up and he could see Shannon's eyes widen when he saw that he was no longer chained to the table. "I warned you. Are you going to listen to me now?" Shannon just nodded. "Alright, then I need a team of your best men and the sword you have hidden here. You know the one."

"How do you know about that?" He snapped, confused beyond belief. How had he known about the Altar? Was he affiliated with whatever was going on there? Was listening to him a death sentence? Shannon had no idea but he didn't see any alternative to going along with what the man was saying.

"I didn't but now I do. I also need the most powerful mages you have locked up. They'll do you more good out then in." He blinked and seemed to listen to someone. "Do you know who the First King is?" Shannon nodded cautiously. He had heard a few stories, just like he had heard a few stories of the Mad King. "Well you're in luck. You're gonna meet him."

-.-

He felt like his limbs were made of stone. His boots were entangled in grass and some kind of forest sprawled around him. He looked up, expecting to see the sky, and only seeing stone. There were for people around him (one of them looked like a dragon) and they looked like they had been hit by a horse or something. Before he could process much more he muttered "Holy dicks, dude."

He looked down at himself, seeing a dark green set of armor and what felt like a crown on his head. He scrunched his eyebrows, trying to remember just who he was. In an instant colors and images and voices poured through his head and slowly he started to piece together who he was. The first name that he settled on was "The First King," but that didn't seem right. He remembered his kingdom, and he remembered his last few years as king and he wondered why he was alive now. It just didn't make sense. The four people from before were staring at him now and he didn't recognize any of them. Actually, he recognized one of them. "Lindsay?"

She looked like she was about to burst into tears as she flung herself into him, almost knocking him down with the force of her hug. After a second he hugged her back. "Welcome back, Geoff."

He felt himself gasp when the name left her lips. Another life flashed before his eyes, this one more jumbled and confused. It seemed like so long ago, longer then when he was the First King. He remembered a quest and the End and he remembered another face. "Kdin, right?"

His face split into a grin and he nodded. "Good to have you back, Geoff."

"I don't know you two," he said to the last two.

"I'm Matt," the taller one said.

"And I'm Jeremy," the shorter one said.

Geoff grinned. "Alright then. Nice to meet you both. I assume you all have something to do with me... being here. Where am I, by the way?"

"You're in the Altar," Lindsay happily supplied.

Geoff blinked and he felt an irrational anger fill him. His face became a dangerous mask as he turned to Kdin. "Care to explain?" He said slowly. If he was in the Altar then there was only one person that could have put him there. He better have a good reason.

He gulped. "Do you not... remember what you did?"

One of his eyebrows shot up. He shook his head. He had no idea what he was talking about. The memories were still trying to arrange themselves. For now he was just the First King, the builder that chose to rule the Overworld while the others lived in paradise, never changing, never aging and never dying. He felt a burst of magic around them and suddenly the forest around them flickered and faded, leaving them just outside of the Altar.

"What the fuck happened?" Geoff asked, bewildered. There was a building a few feet away but other than that there was nothing but a thicket of trees slowly engulfing the Altar behind them. They heard the sound of revving engines and cars on gravel roads, though to Geoff they didn't translate to anything for he had never seen or heard of a car before.

Before they knew what was happening they were surrounded by an entourage of black cars and black clothed people holding guns. Everyone but Geoff immediately threw up their hands. He was focusing on a man standing among the gunpoints. He felt his anger rear its ugly head again. He walked forward, ignoring the increasing amount of weapons pointed at him and got an inch away from a man that he had thought he'd seen the last of. "What are you doing here?" He spat at the Mad King, ignoring the blue eyes and hurt expression.

"Geoff?" He asked, and something in his voice clicked and a few more memories fell into place.

"Ryan?"

He smiled a watery smile and nodded. "Yeah. It's good to see you again."

"You too, you too. What are they doing here? More importantly, who are they?" Ryan seemed to have noticed them for the first time.

"I told them not to fucking do the gun thing but they just loooove doing the gun thing." He muttered under his breath. "What are you doing? I told you that there wasn't going to be a need for the guns. Put them away!" Geoff didn't miss the red flicker in his friend's eyes. In an instant there was a sword pressed to his throat.

"Who are you?" He asked, almost surprising himself by the malice in his voice. A sneer spread across the man's face, the red eyes replacing the blue ones.

"I'm hurt, Geoff. I'm hurt that you don't recognize me. You did kill me, after all." At this he felt the sword get wrenched out of his hands, blood coating the sword from where the Mad King had grabbed the blade. There was a terrible look in his eyes, one that rivaled his own. "You do know who I am, right? Well, I sure hope killing me was worth all that happened after that. I hope it was worth it, I really do." His hand shot out, stopping an inch from Geoff's throat. One eye almost seemed blue again, but the red was still prominent. The arm dropped suddenly and Ryan stumbled back, the blue returning. He held down his hand, as if afraid that it would try to hurt him again. The last of the memories finally pieced together.

"I'm sorry, Ryan," he said, realizing what he must have to live with in his head.

"Yeah," he grunted, obviously trying to keep the king from taking control. "Thanks. I appreciate the sentiment, really. You're just around a few hundred years late."

A grunt pushed towards them, manhandling a scrawny man with grey hair reminiscent of Gavin's. "We found this one in the museum."

"Joel?" Matt yelped, and ran forwards. The grunt let the man go and he almost fell to the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. What's going on?"

Matt shook his head. "I'm not sure."

Joel's eyes flickered to Geoff. There was an intense feeling of something coming from the man, but he couldn't tell what. It was almost like he wasn't entirely human. It sort of felt like...

He lunged for the sword that Ryan had thrown away, a moment too late. He felt a tail slam into his body, smashing him into the stone of the Altar. Suddenly there was a lot of shouting and a lot of commotion but Geoff just felt his vision blur and turn black.


	14. Wishes come true, not free.

The dragon went to work immediately, destroying stone and metal and people with as much energy as a five year old during a birthday party. Ryan stumbled and tried to get out of the dragon's range. He ran to the farthest truck, the one holding a group of mages. He wrenched open the doors at the back. "Time to go," he yelled over the noise. "Give me the sword, Meg."

The red head looked at him, terrified. The first time he had met her she had looked at him like he was insane, but then again he had been trying to explain the situation while the king was making it as hard as possible to do. Now she just looked helpless. Her arms only tightened over the cracked leather seethe that the sword was held in. "What's going to happen to you?"

"Why do you care?" the king spat. "I don't recall you hesitating when I made them let you go. I don't remember you caring when I explained what was going to happen. But if you must know, I'm probably going to die. It takes a life to kill a dragon, as I've heard a million times. Well, with two lives I'd say I've got a 50/50 chance of being the one that survives. Now give me the sword."

She nodded and handed it over. He slung it over his back and beckoned the mages out of the truck. Their eyes all drifted to the dragon that was tearing away at the ground and the trees. A shadow appeared behind the dragon, a huge purple and grey figure that seemed to be almost twice its size. It was another dragon, and this one he recognized. Good to know that Kdin wasn't just going to let him destroy the kingdom. "What do we do?" Meg asked, glancing periodically at the two dragons fighting.

"You're asking me?" Ryan asked, blocking a huge chunk of stone from hitting them. "Just keep the dragon in one place. Subdue it, I don't care. Just get it to stop moving." Meg nodded and set to work, commanding the mages to start laying traps, spells, anything that would be helpful. Ryan walked forward, dodging the swinging tails and the white hot flames that kept coming at him. He felt a flash of regret, regret that this might be the end for him, that he might die there and then, on that day. He felt a similar sentiment from the king.

He saw Kdin spread his wings and soar over the Altar just as the mages' traps were activated. Long, thin wires started to entangle around the dragon, holding him down and keeping him there. His wings lashed out, only to be held down by the same wires. His mouth was forced shut and all he could do was lay there in pain and growl at Ryan as he walked closer- or was it the king?

"Hello. It's been a long time coming, you know." He slowly took the sword out, the diamond shining against the dragon's scales. He growled, but he could see the fear in the beast's eyes. "You came after me, the fear you caused was something I never experienced. But you almost destroyed my kingdom, and no matter what it's done to us I can't let that go unpunished."

In a last ditch attempt to escape the Exile transformed back into a man, the wires falling away from him. He turned and took a step that would have ended in a sprint, had he gotten the chance. A sword speared through his chest, a bright blue light surrounding them. The king- or was it Ryan?- saw his life speed by, from day one to the present, all the terrible and the good, the confusion and the friends, and for once he was at peace with his decision. They both were.

-.-

"Is that it?" A rude drunk shouted out from somewhere in the bar.

He almost laughed at that. "No, of course it isn't. You think a story like that just ends?" He leaned forward, and everyone else seemed to as well. "There is so much still left to be said, there is so much history that I haven't told you, so many conversations and events that have gone ignored. I'll start with the future- the future of our heroes, or your present. Patch exists, I know that you know that. People have started settling there again, and the monuments are being found and people are researching the past again. Magic has stopped flowing once again, but the history is there to take its place this time. But if you were to go looking for Achievement City, the original one, you wouldn't find it. It's gone, and no one can know for certain if it was ever real."

"Where'd it go?"

He smiled even though he felt a cold weight in his stomach form at the words that left his mouth. "I don't know. No one really knows. They left when the dragon, along with their friend, died. They had nothing left on the mainland. They were all dead and gone. So they went back to Patch, Geoff had a happy reunion with Griffon, and everyone was content. No one really cared about their dead friend. Kdin returned to the End to rule, because whether or not you've forgotten he is the Ender King and he has responsibilities. A short reprieve is something every king takes once in a while, and for a dragon a few centuries is almost no time at all. The Mad King is dead, Ryan was destroyed, and the Exile finally killed, and now everyone is happy and content." His mouth twisted into a grimace. His hand wandered to a package wrapped in bland brown paper with power humming from the sword that it held. He wished, not for the first time nor the last, that he hadn't been left behind again. He wanted to see them all again, even if they probably wouldn't receive him with open arms and smiles. He liked to pretend that they might, but he couldn't ever be sure.

He left that night, and continued to wander the kingdom, hoping that one day he'd find a reason to live again, and the silence in his head wouldn't hurt so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the end was probably rushed, but it was the end. I tried to keep it open to interpretation on who died and who survived. Honestly I haven't chosen myself, and I might not ever. Would you want me to write another part? If I did it would feel like beating a dead horse. I could answer any questions from you guys in the comments and maybe write some sort of prequel? I don't know. Anyways, this is the very first series that I've ever finished so that's probably why it seems so iffy at times. I'm proud of it though, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Until next time.


End file.
